Ukraine is not expecting the rapid signing of a new cooperation program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after its mission's visit ends next month, Economic Development and Trade Minister of Ukraine Ihor Prasolov said.

"It is not thought that right after the mission's work at the beginning of February we will immediately sign in Kyiv or travel there [to the United States] and sign a memorandum. The IMF mission's main task now is to study the situation in Ukraine," Prasolov told the press on Wednesday.

The mission led by Christopher Jarvis arrived in Kyiv January 29.

Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov said on January 14 that Kyiv intended to get opened a new program of financial cooperation with the IMF to the tune of SDR 10 billion.

The current Stand-By Arrangement between Ukraine and the IMF terminated in December 2012. In late July 2010, the IMF decided to renew its loan partnership with Ukraine through a new Stand-By Arrangement worth SDR 10 billion (over $15 billion). According to the NBU, the country succeeded in getting two tranches worth a total of SDR 2.25 billion ($3.4 billion). The program was frozen at the stage of the second review in the spring of 2011. For a year and a half, Ukraine has been trying to persuade the IMF to drop its objections to the government's subsidizing natural gas tariffs for households until the completion of its gas talks with Russia.