BRUSSELS, Oct. 20 - Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Thursday that he was pessimistic a solution could be found which allows the Netherlands to ratify an EU pact with Ukraine, raising fresh doubts about a key symbol of support for the country’s pro-Western government, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Rutte said he told EU leaders, gathered at a summit in Brussels, that no solution was in sight which would allow him to win political backing in the Dutch parliament to ratify the pact.

“I see little room in The Hague to come to a solution...so I am pessimistic about a good result,” he told reporters after the meeting.

Rutte is seeking to respond to concerns the concerns about the EU-Ukraine deal, which Dutch voters rejected in an April referendum.

That vote, which only narrowly topped the threshold for turnout, was widely seen as expressing growing Dutch concerns about the EU—part of a backlash across the continent against the bloc. Rutte faces elections in the spring. Among his principle rivals is Geert Wilders, whose anti-immigration Party for Freedom favors leaving the EU.

The Dutch prime minister had been expected to lay out some of the options he was considering to win domestic backing for the deal. According to Dutch and EU officials, one option is to seek a declaration by EU leaders that an accord with Ukraine doesn’t set Kiev on a pathway to membership or involve further financial assistance to Ukraine.

Rutte is also said to be considering an opt-out from the military parts of the EU’s Ukraine agreement. However in the end, he didn't lay out any specifics to the other leaders on Thursday but spoke about the difficult political position he was facing at home over the agreement, according to officials briefed on the discussion.

Earlier Thursday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told reporters after a meeting in the Netherlands that a Dutch rejection of the agreement would set a “dangerous precedent” as Ukraine is facing extreme pressure from Russia.

Ukraine and its western allies accuse Russia, which fiercely opposed the EU-Ukraine pact, of backing and supporting pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. (wsj/ez)