BRUSSELS, March 1 – European integration, including free trade and visa-free travel, will remain a “key priority” of Ukraine’s foreign policy, President Viktor Yanukovych told leaders of the European Union on Monday.

Yanukovych, who was inaugurated on Thursday, traveled to Brussels for his first official foreign visit, a move seen by many as shaking off his earlier image as a pro-Russian figure.

“For Ukraine, the European integration is the key priority of its foreign policy,” Yanukovych told European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. “It’s also a strategy for systemic social and economic reforms.”

Yanukovych’s predecessor, Viktor Yushchenko, had been promoting a pro-Western foreign policy, but the policy angered Moscow so much that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had refused to meet Yushchenko since August 2008.

Yanukovych largely campaigned on a platform of improving relations with Russia by increasing political, economic and trade cooperation with Moscow.

Medvedev and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have been hoping that Yanukovych would switch Ukraine’s foreign policy course towards closer ties or even integration with Russia.

Yanukovych’s trip to Moscow is due on March 5, but the fact that he chose Brussels for his first visit has been noticed and appreciated in the European Union.

“This is a very important signal for all of us in the European Union,” Jerzy Buzek, the President of the European Parliament, told Yanukovych.

“I believe that your first visit to the European Parliament is the beginning of a long way of cooperation between Ukraine and the European Union,” Buzek said. “We need each other.”

Hanna Herman, a deputy chief of staff at the Yanukovych administration, said last week the schedule of foreign trips should not be overestimated.

But the pledge to continue the European integration was also praised by lawmakers whose support Yanukovych may need for creating a new governing coalition.

“For the first time I have realized that Yanukovych, as the president, pledged the policy of European integration will remain a priority for Ukraine,” Mykola Katerynchuk, a lawmaker from Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense group, said.

In Brussels, Yanukovych also sought the EU’s support for the resumption of the country’s cooperation with the International Monetary Fund, which had suspended $16.4 billion two-year loan in November 2009.

Ukraine will need support from the IMF to be able to avoid default on paying about $30 billion in sovereign and corporate foreign debts due this year, according to Ukrainian officials.

The IMF has earlier indicated it may resume lending to Ukraine after the country’s presidential election that had ended with the inauguration of Yanukovych on February 25.

Ukraine will also seek to deepen its trade and economic cooperation with the EU by pushing for the free trade agreement that had been negotiated over the past several years, and by visa-free travel for Ukrainians.

“We have come to agreement on the key assignment to continue negotiations concerning the [EU] Association Agreement, including creation of the comprehensive free trade zone,” Yanukovych said.

Iryna Akimova, the first deputy chief of staff at the Yanukovych administration and his chief economic advisor, said Saturday that Ukraine will not pursue a trade union that currently unites Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.

She said Ukraine, a member of the World Trade Organization, will rather encourage Russia and other countries to join the WTO. (tl/ez)