KIEV, March 28 - The frontrunner to head a new Ukrainian government has asked Slovak politician Ivan Miklos to serve as his finance minister if he becomes prime minister, a Slovak daily said on Monday, Reuters reported.

Miklos, who has twice served as Slovakia's finance minister, has given his preliminary approval to the offer from Volodymyr Groysman, an ally of Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, provided he wins a guarantee that he will not have to give up his Slovak citizenship, the daily Dennik N said on its website.

His appointment would spell the departure of Ukraine’s current finance minister, Natalia Jaresko, an American-born technocrat who is respected in Washington and who had put her own name forward to become prime minister as late as last week.

Miklos, who oversaw market-friendly reforms in Slovakia while in government in 2002-2006 and 2010-2012, is already an adviser to Ukraine's finance ministry.

Under current legislation, any member of Ukraine's government must be a citizen of the country, while in Slovakia there are laws against dual citizenship.

"I got an offer to join the government and gave my preliminary approval to the nomination after the fulfillment of certain conditions," Miklos told the website.

"It is unacceptable for me to lose my Slovak citizenship so a solution lies now with the Ukrainian side, which will probably have to change Ukrainian legislation," he was quoted as saying.

Ukraine's finance ministry was not immediately available to comment.

Groysman, Ukraine's parliamentary speaker, emerged last week as the frontrunner to replace unpopular Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk.

Support for Yatseniuk's Western-backed government has plunged since he took power after the 2013/2014 Maidan protests and his government has been hanging by a thread since three parties quit the coalition, the first of them last September.

Groysman's appointment is not a shoe-in, even assuming that Yatseniuk finally bows to calls to resign, and it is likely to come only after days or weeks of fractious talks between parties.

Coalition infighting and corruption scandals have stymied reforms demanded by Kiev's Western backers and derailed negotiations for a new $1.7 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund needed to prop up Ukraine's war-torn economy. (rt/ez)