New Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko called on Tuesday for deeper cooperation between Ukraine and NATO in a speech at a summit in Brussels.

"The development of civil society, independent justice, and free speech as well as the fight against corruption gives a real opportunity to considerably deepen relations between the Ukraine and NATO in the near future," he said.

Sitting next to US President George W. Bush, the Ukrainian president also said that "the process of European and Euro-Atlantic integration will be decisive for the strategy and tactics of Ukrainian policy."

"We believe that the Ukraine's participation in the Euro-Atlantic community of democratic peoples would help ensure peace and security on the whole European continent," he said.

Yushchenko was speaking at a NATO-Ukraine summit that took place shortly after Bush arrived in the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer pledged to help Ukraine take its "rightful place" in Europe and said Yushchenko's December election had shown Kiev's commitment to the values shared by NATO.

"Our interest in intensified practical cooperation with Ukraine should be understood as a sign of our deep commitment to this partnership and our willingness to help Ukraine along the path to assuming (its) rightful place as an integral part of a Europe whole, free and democratic," he said.

Bush also met separately with Yushchenko, the first meeting between the two men since the Ukrainian leader was elected in December in a re-run of the hotly contested presidential elections which triggered a political crisis in the former Soviet republic.

In a keynote speech on the Monday, Bush declared that Ukraine must be welcomed into the transatlantic community.

"As the free government takes oath in the country and as the government of president Yushchenko pursues vital reforms, Ukraine should be welcomed by the Euro-Atlantic family," he told European dignitaries gathered here.

Ukraine has long been a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace program of closer ties with former communist states, but is hoping to further boost its ties with the West's former Cold War-era military bloc.

Yushchenko has also made it clear it wants to be offered the prospect of membership of the European Union (EU), which was also to hold a summit later in the day Tuesday.

The EU on Monday finalised an "action plan" for Ukraine, laying out a series of benefits the EU intends to offer the country, but has so far stopped short of talking about EU membership.