EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner headed to Ukraine Wednesday for top-level talks, days before the European Union was due to adopt an "action plan" to tighten ties with the ex-Soviet nation.

The Austrian official will meet Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko as well as Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and senior members of her cabinet in Kiev on Thursday, the European Commission said in a statement.

"I look forward to getting down to work with the new government to support Ukraine's own ambitious programme of political and economic reforms," Ferrero-Waldner said.

"We have heard Ukraine's calls for closer relations with the EU, and we are ready to answer with an action plan designed to bring Ukraine and the EU much closer together," she said.

The plan lays out 10 benefits that the EU intends to offer to Ukraine ranging from better trade terms to eased visa restrictions. But it stops short of evoking Yushchenko's desire for his country one day to join the bloc.

The plan is due to be formally adopted next Monday during a visit to Brussels by Yushchenko, who finally took office late last month after a two-month political crisis sparked by rigged elections.

"I am confident that for the immediate future, many of Ukraine's aspirations can be addressed in this framework," Ferrero-Waldner said, while warning that both sides need to speed up their efforts.

The European Commission needed to accelerate preparatory work for negotiations on an EU-Ukraine free-trade area once the country had joined the World Trade Organisation, she said.

The European Parliament said meanwhile that Yushchenko would address a plenary session of the EU assembly next Wednesday in Strasbourg, just after his visit to Brussels.

Ukraine's new leader was to have addressed the European Parliament on January 27 to press his case for his ex-Soviet nation's eventual entry into the EU.

But the visit was abandoned owing to bad weather in Poland, where Yushchenko had been attending ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.

Speaking in the western Ukrainian town of Lviv where he enjoys strong support, Yushchenko said Wednesday ahead of the meeting with Ferrero-Waldner: "I have no doubt that we are European and that we are at the center of Europe ... We are the neighbours of the European Union."

The pro-Western Ukrainian leader restated his determination to secure EU membership and said that to that end he hoped his country would obtain "market economy country status ... in a few months".

He also reiterated his plan to win his country's admission to the World Trade Organization, saying an application would be filed in November.