KIEV, March 22 – The Ukrainian government hopes to sign agreements on the creation of a free-trade zone and the introduction of a visa-free regime with the European Union in the first half of 2011, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development and Trade Andriy Kliuyev said.

"I believe that in the first half of the year we will complete the negotiating process and enter the final straight of the signing of [an agreement on] a free trade zone and a visa-free regime with the European Union," Kliuyev said during the fourth meeting of the Trilateral Parliamentary Assembly of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine in Kiev on Tuesday.

Kliuyev pointed out that in the Ukrainian government, he is in charge of issues linked to the holding of talks on a free trade zone with the European Union.