Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko (R) welcomes German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) in Kiev, capital of Ukraine, July 21, 2008. Visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that her country would support Ukraine's bids to become a European Union (EU) associated member and join NATO's membership action plan (MAP). (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    KIEV, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that her country would support Ukraine's bids to become a European Union (EU) associated member and join NATO's membership action plan (MAP).

    "Germany hopes a new, enhanced agreement between Ukraine and the European Union would be regarded as an agreement on associated membership," Merkel told a joint press conference after talks with President Viktor Yushchenko in Kiev.

    "An EU-Ukraine meeting will be held in France this fall under the chairmanship of France. And we, Germany, may imagine that the new agreement with Ukraine means not only an agreement about enhanced cooperation, but also as an agreement on associated membership," she added.

    This "is not a status, but a qualification of the new agreement," Merkel said. "One should not take this as terms for joining the EU."

    She also pledged to help Ukraine work out a road map to join MAP.

    "In Bucharest, it was stated and I repeat it now: Ukraine will become a member of NATO," said Merkel, who arrived in Kiev Monday for a one-day official visit.

    At a NATO summit in Bucharest in April, the alliance refused to admit Ukraine and Georgia to its MAP, despite U.S. President George W. Bush's strong support for the bid by the former Soviet republics.

    NATO said it would reconsider the countries' NATO bid at a meeting of its foreign ministers in December.