President Viktor Yushchenko says Ukraine has done the utmost for NATO foreign ministers to pass a positive decision on the Membership Action Plan for it in early December, despite Moscow's protests and political crisis in this country.

    He gave warning that expansion of the military alliance was vital to European security in the wake of Russia's war with Georgia, and the only way to secure Ukraine's independence, The Times reported on Thursday.

    President Yushchenko pointed to history to stress the importance of NATO membership for Ukraine: "Since 1918, Ukraine declared its independence six times and five times it failed. One of the fundamental reasons for that is that we had no external partners who would recognize our territorial integrity."

    Russia's decision to recognize Georgia's rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states after the war in August has triggered alarm in Ukraine over the Kremlin's intentions in Crimea. Tensions are rising over President Yushchenko's insistence that Moscow withdraw its Black Sea Fleet from the pro-Russian region by 2017, the newspaper reads.

    NATO held back from offering MAP to both countries in April under intense Russian pressure. Some within the alliance claim that this emboldened the Kremlin to wage war in South Ossetia, while others argue that it averted a potentially catastrophic confrontation with Russia, The Times says.

    Next month's meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels will set the stage for the alliance's 60th anniversary summit next year. Many members are reluctant to antagonize Moscow further by offering MAP now, the author says.