EU foreign policy chief to visit Ukraine next week

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini will travel to Kiev on Tuesday for talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on the crisis in the rebel-held east of the country, the EU said on Thursday.

She will also raise economic, political and judicial reforms that the EU believes are urgently needed in Ukraine.

Her trip will follow a visit to Brussels on Monday by Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk to follow up on an economic and political cooperation agreement signed in June.

Mogherini, the former Italian foreign minister, has said she is ready to help resolve the crisis over Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and its support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, which led the EU and United States to impose economic sanctions on Russia.

Ukraine said on Thursday that three more of its soldiers had been killed and eight wounded in attacks by the rebels in the past 24 hours. Mogherini held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Switzerland last week and has said she would be willing to visit Moscow if a breakthrough appeared possible.

EU foreign ministers and leaders are both scheduled to discuss the Ukraine crisis next week. Diplomats say there are no plans for the EU to impose further sanctions on Russia, although the bloc is set to tighten restrictions on investment in Crimea.

(Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)