Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, while commenting on a meeting held with President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy in Kyiv on Friday, has said the fact that Van Rompuy's first official visit to the Eastern Partnership countries was made to Ukraine is a "weighty testimony of the strategic nature of the EU's relations with Ukraine."

Yanukovychsaid that the sides had discussed the ways of tackling the negative consequences of the global crisis, as well as measures being taken by Ukraine and the European Union in this regard. "It is very important that in many cases we have similar approaches to resolving international problems of the modern agenda," the Ukrainian president said.

He noted that the results of negotiations had also testified particular attention that the EU pays to Ukraine in its foreign policy strategy. "A confirmation of this was the decision by the European Union to provide a macro-financial assistance of 500 million euros to our state," "Yanukovych said, thanking Van Rompuy for this.

While speaking about negotiations on signing the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, Yanukovych described this process as "difficult," because "both sides have set the task of drawing up the most ambitious and innovative document."

He said that to do so, the sides were seeking mutually acceptable compromise that would allow to move forward.

Yanukovychsaid that both sides wanted to make significant progress ahead of the Ukraine-EU summit, which is scheduled for November this year. In his words, "a result is more important for us than a date."

Herman Van Rompuy, in turn, described Ukraine as "a state strategically important for the European Union," so he said that the EU had committed to strengthening and deepening its relations with Ukraine.

Van Rompuy said that the EU and Ukraine would draw up a two-stage action plan on the dialog on visa-free travel, which will include a number of measures that must be implemented in Ukraine at the stage of introducing a visa-free regime with the European Union.

He said that certain progress had already been made in this sphere, however, he declined to name a specific date when the visa-free regime will be introduced for Ukraine.