(AVIGNON) - The EU wants a summit with Ukraine to go ahead as planned next week, despite a political crisis that threatens to pull down the government in Kiev, European officials said Friday.

The meeting scheduled in Evian, France has "more meaning now than ever" said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana as he arrived for two days of talks between EU foreign ministers in Avignon.

European officials have suggested Ukraine could be the next flashpoint for tensions between Russia and the West after a war in Georgia last month that has left Russian troops occupying positions deep inside Georgian territory.

Ukraine's pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko has accused his opponents in parliament of a coup attempt and threatened early parliamentary polls after the prime minister's party sided with pro-Russian deputies to pass laws cutting his powers.

The EU-Ukraine summit "was organised a long time back and it would be very difficult to reschedule," said a diplomat from France, which holds the EU's rotating presidency.

He noted however that the ball was in the Ukrainian court.

"It's not a requirement for EU membership that they should not have elections, it's the other way around," said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, of the possibility of a change of government there.

"What they have going on in Kiev is a political battle between political forces, this might sound noisy... but it's called democracy," he added.

Bildt reaffirmed, like many of his EU colleagues, his wish for Ukraine to eventually become a member of the European bloc.

"They are welcome," he said.

The 27 EU nations have agreed that the existing partnership accord with Ukraine should be dubbed an "Association Agreement," the same term used for pacts with the Balkan nations whom all agree will eventually join the European Union.

However the draft summit declaration makes no mention of the key "European perspective" for Ukraine, which Kiev had been hoping for and which is familiar eurospeak for an eventual goal of EU membership.

The EU has been divided over whether the former Soviet state should be allowed to enter, perhaps even more divided than it is over strife-torn Georgia.

Poland and the Baltic countries, as well as Sweden and Britain, have always insisted that Ukraine is a European nation and therefore deserves a place at the table.

But the nations of "Old Europe," led by Germany, are opposed, amid concerns about continued enlargement, and also about irritating Russia, which has flexed its energy and political muscles, as well as its military ones recently.

Ukraine had been hoping that after Moscow's military intervention with fellow EU and NATO hopeful Georgia would work in its favour as fears of grow of a resurgent Russia seeking renewed influence in its former Soviet satellites.

EU-Ukraine Summit

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