KIEV, April 9 - Despite winning rare praise from the West for freeing an opponent from jail, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych is likely to resist extra pressure and the lure of trade deals to release his fiercest rival, ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Reuters reported.

Though he has pardoned former interior minister Yuriy Lutsenko, a Tymoshenko ally, that will not be enough to satisfy European Union demands for democratic reform and clinch association and free-trade agreements with the 27-member bloc in November, at a summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

"I would not open a bottle of champagne yet for Ukraine and its future (after Lutsenko's release). There are plenty of doubts as to whether Ukraine will be able to implement other commitments," said Olga Shumylo-Tapiola, visiting scholar of Carnegie Europe in Brussels.