Talks scheduled to be held here Thursday between foreign ministers of members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Ukraine have been postponed due to the political turmoil in Kiev, NATO sources said Wednesday.

The postponement came amid growing acrimony between the West and Russia over the situation in Ukraine. Russia has warned the West against interfering in the affairs of its neighbor Ukraine and in other former Soviet republics.

The NATO-Ukraine talks were due to be held on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers from NATO countries.

The clash between the West and Moscow, with mutual accusations of interference in Ukraine, also dominated a ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Sofia on Tuesday, preventing agreement on a final communique.

Ukraine announced in 2002 that it intends to join the trans-Atlantic military alliance as soon as possible. It has also set 2011 as a target date for starting negotiations over membership of the European Union.