RIA Novosti cited the speaker of the country's parliament as saying that Ukraine could receive a USD 2 billion loan from the World Bank.

The International Monetary Fund earlier agreed to lend Ukraine USD 16.5 billion.

Mr Arseniy Yatsenyuk speaker of the country's parliament said that "The ball is in Ukraine's court now. It is up to us to decide what amount of money we should receive. He said that the funds would be used to reform Ukraine's financial and banking sectors. The financial crisis has seen Ukrainians rush to withdraw their savings, fearing banking collapses. More than USD 3 billion was pulled out of banks in October.

Ukraine's economy has been hard hit by the global credit crunch, along with the falling price of steel, a key national export.