EU foreign policy chief ­Federica Mogherini urged Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko  on Monday to take tougher and more immediate action against corruption as his country moves closer to Europe.

But Mogherini's visit was clouded by Ukrainian ­lawmakers' decision the ­previous week to block a bill banning discrimination against gays in the workplace.

The implementation of such a ban is a precondition for visa-free travel to most EU nations.

"We stressed the need to deliver the anti-corruption reform, which is the key to the credibility and sustainability of all the others," Mogherini told reporters in prepared remarks. "I would stress the need to have anti-corruption bodies that can start their work soon."

Ukraine has struggled to ­appoint a special prosecutor specifically tasked with tackling the graft and state privileges that have become endemic in Kiev, slowing the country's ­efforts to achieve transparency and economic growth.

The complex inner workings of Ukrainian politics have induced activists and prosecutors to wage war over who should sit on the independent commission that will appoint the anti-corruption chief.

Reform-minded activists have enrolled seven foreign and local experts to the commission, but they are furious that the general prosecutor's office wants four of it own people on the board, which critics see as the office's attempt to preserve the dysfunctional status quo.

"Recently, we received a letter from European ­Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that spells out what further steps we need to take," said ­Poroshenko.

"I would like to inform you that on Friday, Ukraine ­resolved the issue concerning who should comprise the commission for electing the anti-corruption prosecutor."

The Western-backed leader provided no further details, and neither he nor Mogherini took reporters' questions.

But Poroshenko added that "I very much hope that either tomorrow or this week, parliament will adopt the legislation required of Ukraine for visa-free travel."

The EU in 2010 said that free travel for Ukrainians depended in part on Kiev's addition of the anti-discrimination clause to its Soviet-era labor code.

Homosexuality was ­formerly a criminal offense that landed people in jail or mental institutions in the ­Soviet Union.

Ukraine ­decriminalized it in 1992, a year ahead of neighboring Russia, but anti-gay prejudice remains high in large swathes of the overwhelmingly religious and conservative country.

A second vote on the anti-discrimination legislation is expected within days.