"Granting Ukraine a Membership Action Plan would require certain courage from both sides, but it would stabilize the situation in Ukraine and reaffirm the alliance's unity in the face of new threats," Yuriy Yekhanurov was quoted as saying by the UNIAN agency.
He was speaking in Estonia at talks with NATO defense ministers and top officials to assess Ukraine's progress toward membership in the Western alliance.
NATO turned down Ukraine and Georgia's bids for MAPs in April, but said it would consider them again in December. Ukraine's chances of being admitted to the program look dim, despite strong backing from Washington.
Russia has been strongly opposed to both Ukraine's and Georgia's bids to join NATO.
Opinion surveys in the ex-Soviet state have shown most Ukrainians are against joining the military bloc.
Ukraine has been plagued by political instability in recent years. On Wednesday, President Viktor Yushchenko said he had dropped plans for early parliamentary polls he had fixed for December in an attempt to end the political deadlock that followed the collapse of the ruling coalition between his supporters and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
It would have been Ukraine's third parliamentary election since 2004, when Yushchenko was swept to power on the back of the "Orange Revolution" energetically supported by Tymoshenko at the time. The allies have since then drifted apart on a host of differences.
NATO members have been reluctant to admit Ukraine over Moscow's opposition and the country's domestic situation.
Speaking Wednesday on television in Estonia, another ex-Soviet state and a NATO member since 2004, Yekhanurov said Ukraine was unlikely to be admitted to the bloc in the next few years, as it still had to carry through reforms.
"We still need to conduct reforms in the country, including in the armed forces, and we are working on it," the minister said.
