(dpa) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko will attend a NATO summit in Bucharest expected to discuss expansion of the alliance eastward, the Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday.
Yushchenko, a supporter of Ukraine's early membership in NATO, had delayed announcement on his plans to attend the April 2-4 meetings in Bucharest because of domestic opposition.
An acrimonious dispute over whether or not even to discuss NATO membership, pitting pro-Europe and pro-Russia political factions in Ukraine's national legislature, has stalled the country's parliament for more than a month.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel added fuel to the fire last week, speaking against Ukraine's and Georgia's joining NATO any time soon on grounds the countries lack widespread public support for the idea.
Merkel's remarks and Ukrainian domestic opposition notwithstanding, Yushchenko will during the Bucharest conference sign an agreement with NATO setting forth a precise step-by-step plan for Ukraine's membership in the Atlantic Alliance, said Oleksander Chaly, a Yushchenko spokesman.
Ukraine's population opposes membership in NATO by a 2 to 1 margin, largely because of NATO air strikes against Serbia, and deployments in Afghanistan, that are generally seen in the former Soviet republic as Western military aggression against a weaker Eastern nation.
The pro-Europe wing of Ukraine's political elite are much more supportive of the idea, in no small part because they see the alliance as a counterweight to pressure from Ukraine's giant northern neighbour Russia.
The pro-Russia wing of Ukraine's political elite for its part argues Ukraine's security would be best protected by friendly relations with Russia, and distance from NATO.