BUDAPEST (Reuters) - The&nbsp;EU&nbsp;must&nbsp;not&nbsp;start&nbsp;membership&nbsp;talks&nbsp;with&nbsp;Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor&nbsp;Orban&nbsp;told state radio on Friday, stressing this was&nbsp;Hungary's&nbsp;"clear stance" on the issue.
EU&nbsp;countries' leaders are due to decide in mid-December on whether to accept the Commission's recommendation to invite Kyiv to begin&nbsp;membership&nbsp;talks&nbsp;as soon as it meets final conditions.
Any such decision requires unanimity of the bloc's 27 members, with Hungary seen as the main potential obstacle.
Nationalist&nbsp;Orban, in power since 2010, said a dispute between Brussels over billions of&nbsp;euros of&nbsp;EU&nbsp;funds suspended for Hungary over a rule-of-law issue cannot&nbsp;be linked in any way to&nbsp;Hungary's&nbsp;support for&nbsp;Ukraine's&nbsp;EU&nbsp;accession&nbsp;talks.
"Membership&nbsp;talks&nbsp;must&nbsp;not&nbsp;be&nbsp;started, this is the clear Hungarian stance,"&nbsp;Orban&nbsp;said, adding that Brussels "owed Hungary money."
"I would like to make it very clear that the Hungarian rejection of the&nbsp;start&nbsp;of&nbsp;talks&nbsp;with&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;over&nbsp;EU&nbsp;membership&nbsp;is&nbsp;not&nbsp;subject to a business deal ...It cannot&nbsp;be linked to the issue of funds that Hungary is entitled to get."
Orban&nbsp;is faced with economic stagnation this year and a widening budget deficit as the country clambers out of&nbsp;Europe's highest inflation rates that peaked above 25% in the first quarter. Investors have been eyeing Budapest's&nbsp;talks&nbsp;with Brussels over the&nbsp;EU&nbsp;funds very closely.
Orban&nbsp;has had many bitter run-ins with the&nbsp;EU&nbsp;and its executive arm, the&nbsp;European Commission, over Budapest tightening state controls over non-governmental organizations, academics, media and courts, as well as a law that is seen hurting LGBT rights.
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(Reporting by Krisztina Than; editing by Jason Neely and Christina Fincher)

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Hungary's Orban says EU must not start membership talks with Ukraine