KYIV, Nov 11 (Reuters) - A team of Ukrainian government experts is due to visit Brussels this week to discuss EU plans to reduce Ukrainian grain exports to the European Union, an official said on Monday.

In September the 15-nation trading bloc proposed creating a wheat import quota to protect its market from cheap Ukrainian and Russian imports. The new quotas could be unveiled as early as this week.

"Our experts are due to arrive in Brussels this week to discuss with European Union officials the prospects of Ukrainian grain sales to the region," Tatyana Luzhanska, spokeswoman for Deputy Prime Minister Leonid Kozachenko, told Reuters.

Last month the government said Ukraine, which had planned to export three to five million tons of grain to Europe in 2002/03, opposed a proposed EU quota of 2.2 million tons for ex-Soviet Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan.

The government says Ukraine alone needs a duty-free quota of at least three million tons.

On Friday local traders said leading European grain firms were refusing to sign new contracts on supplies of Ukrainian grain with delivery later than December 10, pending a future rise in European Union import tariffs.