KIEV, August 29./ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine will seek NATO membership, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told a cabinet meeting on Friday.

“We are submitting a draft law to parliament cancelling non-bloc status.This charts the way for Ukraine to become a member of NATO,” he added.

Ukraine signed a "Charter on Distinctive Partnership" with NATO in 1997 and began moves towards joining the alliance five years later, its leaders setting 2008 as the target date to join the western military bloc.

Advance stalled in 2010, however, when then president Viktor Yanukovych pushed through a law declaring the non-bloc status and giving up plans to join the organisation.

Ukraine joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace program in 1994. NATO defines the program as allowing Euro-Atlantic partner countries to build individual relationships with the bloc, choosing their own priorities for co-operation.