KIEV, October 16 (RIA Novosti) - The President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly begins an official visit to Ukraine Sunday, Ukrainian parliament spokesmen said.
Pierre Lellouche will meet for talks on Ukraine's prospective integration into NATO with President Viktor Yushchenko, Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvynov, Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko, Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk, and National Security and Defense Council Secretary Anatoliy Kinakh.
He is also scheduled to meet with the head of the National Center for Euro-Atlantic Integration and with Ukrainian MPs representing the national legislature in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
The talks' agenda will be dominated by reforms to bring Ukraine up to NATO standards. This issue was also the focus of PM Yekhanurov's October 7 meeting in Brussels with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who said the reforms would be crucial to Ukraine's accession into the trans-Atlantic alliance.
The NATO chief is due in Kiev October 18-20, to attend a session of the Ukraine-NATO commission.
