MILITARY REFORM IS KEY CONDITION FOR UKRAINE

.Military reform is key condition for Ukraine's NATO ambitions.

BRUSSELS, June 14 (Itar-Tass) -- Ukraine's Defence Minister Yuri
Yekhanurov said on Saturday that successful military reform in Ukraine was
a key condition for joining NATO.
"After the collapse of the Soviet Union our army had a strength of 1
million people. Now it has 250,000 people and our task is to further
reduce it to 150,000," Yekhanurov told a joint news conference with NATO
general secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer after a meeting of the
NATO-Ukraine commission. He said that the main aim of the military reform
was to create a modern, highly professional and efficient army.
Yekhanurov said NATO was rendering Ukraine "invaluable assistance" in
liquidating excessive stocks of weapons and ammunition left over from
Soviet days.