BERLIN, March 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on Tuesday started his two-day visit to Germany by expressing the confidence that his country can be a EU member within the coming 10 years.

    The European Union membership for Ukraine will be achieved "certainly before the year 2016," said Yushchenko in an interview with the Mainz-based Allgemeine Zeitung to be published Wednesday.

    The Ukrainian president stressed that his country with 48 million people was of interest for EU not just due to economic considerations but also due to its strategic role.

    Ukraine's eagerness to join EU will be the main topic when Yushchenko meets German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Wednesday.He is also scheduled to address the Bundestag (German parliament) on Wednesday.

    However, Yushchenko's call for EU membership to Ukraine has already met cold response from German politicians.

    Gert Weisskirchen, the foreign policy spokesman of the ruling SPD party in the Bundestag, said that Ukraine should first be satisfied to get associate status from EU, similar to what Turkey has held for decades.

    Matthias Wissmann, a politician from the opposition CDU party and also chairman of the Bundestag's European Affairs Committee, said that a "full EU membership is unreachable in the foreseeable future given current, enormous shortfalls" in Ukraine's economic development. Enditem