Yushchenko made EU integration a central component of his campaign for the election, which he won on Sunday with 52 percent of the vote to 44 percent for Viktor Yanukovych, the outgoing prime minister.

In an interview with the newspaper, Boris Tarasyuk, a former foreign minister who is expected to return to the job under Yushchenko, said Yushchenko's European policy would be to demonstrate Ukraine was serious about adopting democratic values.

He said there was consensus in the newly elected government that membership was a realistic long-term goal to be achieved after initially developing its relations under the EU's "Neighborhood Program," a guiding incentive-based program at conforming to EU standards.

Tarasyuk said Ukraine would also press to join the World Trade Organization by the end of next year, but would go more slowly with NATO, which his country could apply to join in three or four years.