Kiev - Ukraine's parliament must approve a 16.5-billion- dollar assistance package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), or the former Soviet republic will face default, the country's national bank head said Tuesday.

Volodymyr Stelmakh, chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), said Kiev desperately needs the low-cost loan, as without it the NBU "almost certainly" would be unable to honour Ukraine's foreign debts.

Stelmakh's statement, made at a Kiev press conference, was Ukraine's clearest warning yet that the world financial crisis had left the country short of cash and on the edge of default on bonds sold in international markets.

Kiev/Budapest/Washington - Ukrainians expressed optimism, but still faced a shaky economy after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it will provide financial support to the hard-pressed country.

The IMF on Sunday simultaneously announced a 16.5-billion-dollar credit for Ukraine. Additionally, it said it plans to give Hungary, which is also facing economic problems, a credit of an as-yet- undetermined size.

Kiev- Ukraine's government on Friday shut down the country's largest stock market in another attempt to halt share-price freefall.

Managers of Ukraine's largest PFTS stock exchange froze all transactions less than two hours after opening.

Share values had fallen between 10 and 19 per cent over Friday morning in heavy trading.

Since the beginning of October, PFTS officials had repeatedly closed the exchange in the middle of a trading day, three times during last week alone.

Kiev- President Viktor Yushchenko on Wednesday called for a tougher defence of the Ukrainian currency the hryvna, as the national bank conceded it could not prop it up at previous levels in the face of mounting bad economic news.

Kiev  - Relatives of a mostly-Ukrainian crew held hostage aboard a ship off the Somali coast are preparing to pay a ransom demanded by pirates, a crew spokeswoman told the Ukrainian Fakty newspaper

Kiev - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on Monday announced a one-week delay in early elections, citing a need to give the present government to deal with a financial crisis.

The nationwide vote for a new parliament will take place on December 14, rather than on December 7 as ordered earlier this month, Yushchenko said in a meeting with reporters.