BERLIN - Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko told Germany's parliament on Wednesday his country would take all steps needed to join the European Union, reiterating he hoped talks could start in 2007.

Yushchenko said also he wanted closer ties with Germany, Europe's largest economy, and offered talks about oil and gas supply pipelines.

"Ukraine wants to be a European state and an indispensable part of a unified Europe," he said, holding out the hope of EU membership within a decade.

Speaking on German television on Wednesday, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said any Ukrainian accession to the EU would take time.

"Ukraine is a European country and…. must clearly be incorporated into the European-Atlantic alliance, where it has its natural place," he told N-TV's Maischberger show.

"But we will have to think for several years about what form this will take and what form the cooperation between Ukraine and the EU will take."

Yushchenko said Ukraine planned to join the World Trade Organization in the autumn and expressed hope that talks on EU membership could begin in earnest in 2007.

Yushchenko told German newspaper Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz he expected Ukraine to join the EU before 2016.

Earlier at a joint press conference, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder promised Germany's support, without mentioning specific dates.

Both Schroeder and Yushchenko stressed Ukraine's bid for EU ties was not against the interests of Russia. Yushchenko called Moscow an "eternal strategic partner".

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Ukraine twice last year during the election campaign to support Yushchenko's rival- then prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich.

Yushchenko made no overt reference to a visa scandal which has eroded support for Germany's ruling coalition government, but called for more liberal travel rules for business people, students and artists.

Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer faces a parliamentary investigation over a former visa policy which opponents say allowed Ukrainian criminal gangs to bring thousands of illegal immigrants into Germany.