Ukraine PM says NATO membership will take time

KIEV, Nov 28 (Reuters) Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich today said Ukraine had a long way to go with reforms before it could try to join NATO and vowed to press for the dismissal of the foreign minister, the main backer of fast-track membership.

Yanukovich, named premier in August, is locked in a battle for influence and power with pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko, who defeated him in a 2004 presidential election in the aftermath of the ex-Soviet state's ''Orange Revolution''.

The president appointed him after his divided ''orange'' allies suffered an electoral setback and failed to form a government.

Yanukovich enraged Yushchenko by telling NATO in September that low support at home ruled out a rapid bid to join the alliance.

Speaking ahead of a visit to Washington, the premier said time and effort were needed for Ukraine to meet NATO standards.

''It is very important today that we achieve in real life the standards espoused by NATO,'' Yanukovich told Western reporters.

''If we deal with reform of the economy, improve living standards and cooperate with NATO and develop joint programmes, popular support for NATO will grow. If there is no such support, joining NATO is impossible.'' But he said Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk could not stay in his job unless he backed his three-party coalition.

''If he does not alter his political position of being in opposition to the government, he has no chance of remaining in the government,'' Yanukovich said.

Yushchenko has defended the record of Tarasyuk and Defence Minister Anatoly Hrytsenko, advocates of NATO and EU membership.

Parliament this month postponed a move to dismiss both ministers and is pursuing a fraud investigation into Hrytsenko.

Yanukovich said differences with Yushchenko were natural in politics, though magnified by constitutional changes approved during the revolution which reduced the president's powers and enhanced those of the premier and parliament.

Yushchenko, he said, had enough powers and he dismissed any notion that the Constitutional Court could overturn them.

''I believe we live in a law-based country and believe that the Constitutional Court will never rescind the constitutional reforms,'' he said.

If a new parliamentary election was called -- as sought by opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko -- he said that would be only to the benefit of his Regions Party, which took first place in last March's parliamentary poll.

''I have no doubt of this,'' he said. ''Only parties with low ratings have anything to worry about. We have nothing to fear.'' Yanukovich, who has long dismissed suggestions that he backs Russian interests at the expense of the West, said he wanted ties with Washington to be ''predictable to favour growth in trade and the development of democratic processes''.

REUTERS SBA BST0134