By Anna Yukhananov
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ukraine's finance minister on Tuesday said the country wants to be "flexible" in its discussions with sovereign bondholders over renegotiating its debt, and is not ruling out any form of agreement, including maturity extension.
Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko also called on the United States to further boost its financial assistance to help rebuild confidence in Ukraine's economy as it struggles against pro-Russia separatists in the east. She declined to specify a specific figure.
The International Monetary Fund last week signed off on a $17.5 billion (11.8 billion pounds), four-year loan programme to help stabilize Kiev's economy. The programme also unlocked another $7.5 billion from other donors, including $2 billion in sovereign guarantees from the United States.
But Yaresko said most of those funds will come in the next 12 to 18 months, and will not be enough to grow the economy.
Ukraine's financing package also assumes Kiev will be able to gain $15.3 billion from negotiations with its sovereign bondholders, and Yaresko said she was confident that amount would come together.
"I think we can be flexible as to how to take our interests, these targets (of $15.3 billion), and our creditors' interests and what it involves, whether it's coupon changes, whether it's term changes, whether it's nominal changes," Yaresko said at the Washington-based Brookings Institution think tank.
Kiev plans to start reaching out to individual creditors on Wednesday, and is happy to include Russia, which holds a $3 billion eurobond that comes due in December.
But Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said this week that Russia is not ready to restructure Ukraine's debt.
"I'm confident that we will find a common language with our creditors, because I'm confident that our creditors and we have the same interests, which is ensuring that Ukraine can repay and have a medium-term debt sustainability," Yaresko said.
"I don't believe any of our creditors, including Russia, have any interests other than that," she said.