Viktor Yushchenko, the recently elected Ukrainian President, is set to launch a major campaign against corruption in the hope of achieving accession to the European Union.

Speaking in Davos, Mr Yushchenko declared war on the corruption for which Ukraine has become notorious, saying eradicating bribery and graft was the country’s "no.1 target".

"In your business loans for 2005, make another entry to be titled: 'Saved expenses on unpaid bribes to Ukrainian officials,'" he said yesterday during a lunch at the World Economic Forum.

He also warned his clampdown on corruption could target senior former and current government officials but refused to elaborate further.

Mr Yushchenko last week called on the European Union to commit by 2007 to membership talks and said he would push through democratic reforms to aid Ukraine’s bid to join the 25-nation bloc.

He vowed to begin reforms that would allow Ukraine to join the World Trade Organisation as early as this year, adding that his ultimate target was entry into the EU.

"Our strategic aim, our vision, is membership of the European Union," he told the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. "We are going to reorganise the government so the process of integration into the EU becomes a real one."

The statements have drawn mixed reactions from European officials. Margot Wallstrom, the European Commission's VicePresident, had said Ukraine's entry was realistic in the long term after Mr Yushchenko's election victory. But Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EC’s External Relations Commissioner, last week rejected as premature a proposal to offer Ukraine an association accord seen as a first step to accession.

Mr Yushchenko was sworn in as president earlier this month, after the "Orange Revolution", the wave of opposition protests that paved his way to victory in the December 26 re-run of a contested presidential vote in the former Soviet republic.

Mr Yushchenko’s appearance in Davos increased pressure on EU officials to embrace Ukraine at a time of little appetite among members for more expansion into poorer parts of Europe. It could also raise concerns in the Kremlin about the weakening of Russian influence over another former Soviet republic.

Ukraine is strategically important to Moscow, which sees the country as a buffer zone between Russia and the expanded EU, as well as a major transit route for its oil and natural gas exports.

In a symbolic gesture aimed at soothing ties, Mr Yushchenko travelled to Moscow and met with President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Monday as his first foreign trip as president.

Yesterday he told the Associated Press that his relationship with the Russian leader was healthy.

"Don’t worry about us working together … it will go well," he said in remarks that were interpreted as suggesting he felt Mr Putin would not oppose Ukraine building closer ties with the west.

On investigations into his alleged poisoning - doctors have confirmed that he ingested dioxin, a toxin which has irreversibly disfigured his face – Mr Yushchenko said in Davos that he knew who was behind it, but declined to go into specifics beyond saying: "the circumstances of my last few hours at dinner are very obvious."

He was alluding to his earlier allegations that he was poisoned at a September 5 dinner with Ukraine’s security agency chief Ihor Smeshko and his first deputy, Volodymyr Satsyuk. Both men have denied wrongdoing.

Pressed on the lessons of Ukraine's revolution for neighbouring Belarus and Moldova, where hardline Soviet-style governments remain in power, Mr Yushchenko declined to mention either country by name.

"I think the Orange Revolution has set a very good example for many citizens outside Ukraine because it showed a way to protect one’s rights," he said. "It’s an example applicable to any country where human rights are not respected."