Russia "would only be too glad" if Ukraine joined the European Union (EU), Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, the Interfax reported.

Putin thinks the Ukraine's accession to the European organization would serve to partially integrate the Russian economy into the EU system.

At a news conference following the talks with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in Moscow Putin said "We know the EU position that this (Ukraine's accession to the EU) is unlikely within the next decade. We have started to pursue two avenues: on the one hand, set up a common economic area in a significant territory of the former USSR, and on the other build a common economic space with the EU."

Meanwhile the president noted "We have always been negative about NATO enlargement. I believe it does not help neutralize contemporary threats. But we have always been positive about European Union enlargement."

Russia thinks that a common economic space with the EU meets the interests of Russia and the EU and "will harmonize our economic relations with Europe," Putin said.

All these steps "do not contradict possible accession of any country, including Ukraine, to the EU. On the contrary, it makes such steps even more probable," he said.

At the same press conference Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said that "the EU agenda does not envision a new enlargement involving Ukraine."