The Ukrainian government is in talks with a visiting mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a possible increase of its 17-billion-U.S.-dollar loan package, Ukrainian Economic Development and Trade Minister Aivaras Abromavicius said here Wednesday.

"We would like to expand the program. The calculations are currently underway," Abromavicius told reporters during a briefing.

Abromavicius declined to comment on the exact amount of additional funds that Kiev requested from the IMF, saying that the sum will be publicly revealed once the talks are concluded.

Analysts say that the country, whose economy plunged an annualized 5.3 percent in the third quarter of 2014 and whose foreign exchange reserves are now at their lowest level in a decade, may need 4 billion to 10 billion dollars in extra financing.

The IMF mission arrived in Kiev on Tuesday to assess Ukraine' s economy and discuss its financing needs in the light of the economic crisis that gripped the country.

After the mission concluded the visit on Dec. 18, the IMF is expected to release some 2.2 billion dollars as a third tranche of the 17-billion-dollar loan package.

Ukraine has by now obtained a total of 4.58 billion dollars from the IMF this year as the first and second tranches of the bailout fund. Endi

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