Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden have discussed by phone the importance of providing a new tranche by the International Monetary Fund to Ukraine (IMF) in the near term and U.S. credit guarantees.

"The side also discussed the important of providing a tranche by the IMF and credit guarantees by the United States in the near term," the press service of the Ukrainian President reported on the official website late on Friday.

As reported, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman earlier said that the Ukrainian government is working on improving bilateral trade relations between Ukraine and the EU, creating the necessary prerequisites for obtaining the second tranche of EU macro-financial assistance in the amount of EUR 600 million.

After the singing of the $1 billion loan guarantee agreement with the United States, Poroshenko expressed hope that the signing of the memorandum of cooperation with the IMF will follow.

On August 13, Biden pointed out recent progress towards fulfilling IMF conditions for disbursing the next tranche of financial assistance, and the importance of recent Ukrainian efforts to continue critical anti-corruption reforms.