KIEV, Sept 7: Ukraine hopes to win membership in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) before the end of this year, the head of administration for President Viktor Yushchenko said on Thursday, Interfax reported.

“This is a strategic task for Ukraine,” the official Oleg Rybachuk was quoted as saying by the news agency. Ukraine has still to adopt 19 laws and two government resolutions to meet the criteria for joining the international trade body, he added.

Drafts of several of these pieces of legislation have been sent by the executive for parliamentary approval, Parliament Speaker Olexander Moroz was quoted as saying by Interfax.

However, new Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, a fierce rival of Yushchenko, has expressed doubts about Ukraine's entry into the WTO this year.

In early August, Yanukovich said that membership might have to be delayed in order to protect the domestic economy. “If we make concessions, our producers will suffer and that would not be correct,” he said.

Yushchenko, who has made WTO entry a priority, has expressed optimism that there is still time to enact the necessary changes to legislation by the end of the year. —AFP