French President Jacques Chirac and visiting Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov urged on Thursday the necessity to ensure the election process must be "free and fair" in Ukraine at the voting on Dec. 26, French presidential Elysee Palace said.

The two leaders talked about the Ukrainian situation that provoked some tensions between Moscow and the West, by stressing the importance to guarantee a free and fair election process, which reflect the will of the Ukrainian people, Chirac's spokesman Jerome Bonnafont said.

After two weeks' demonstrations to denounce the frauds in the vote cast on Nov. 21, a compromise has been reached between the government and the opposition to reorganize a second on Dec. 26.

Russia has strongly criticized these days some western countries on ingerence in Ukraine. Russia and the NATO agreed Thursday to call on all parties in Ukraine to ensure the elections go smoothly.

According to the spokesman, Chirac hoped to "give a new impulse to ties between the European Union and Russia and insisted on ending the negotiations by next May in political, economic, educational and cultural fields.

The two leaders agreed that there was a "great proximity of views between the two countries, notably over the Iraqi elections scheduled in January and the Mideast issue, said Bonnafont.

And they also noted the excellence of political dialogue between France and Russia, and in the economic field, they hoped that French business grow further in Russia, according to the spokesman.