Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Wednesday urged the G7 industrialized countries to offer financial assistance to help cover Ukraine`s budget deficit, Xinhua reported.

    "As prime minister, I am obliged to act to cover the planned budget deficit and I will therefore cooperate with countries able to support Ukraine with key credit instruments ... to be backed by state bonds," Tymoshenko said during a meeting with G7 ambassadors to Ukraine.

    "We already have real figures. It`s about 5 billion U.S. dollars," she added.

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    Tymoshenko also vowed to continue cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a loan program aimed at helping Ukraine overcome the financial crisis.

    In November 2008, IMF granted Ukraine the 16.5-billion-dollar loan, and then extended the first tranche of the loan of 4.5 billion dollars.

    The IMF is due to decide on whether to extend the second tranche on Feb. 15 amid an increasingly worsening economic situation in Ukraine.

    Ukraine admitted on Tuesday it risked missing out on the second tranche of loan for failing to implement reforms demanded by the IMF as conditions for further loans.

Xinhua