KIEV, April 16 - Ukraine could ask the International Monetary Fund to revise the criteria under which it disburses loans to Kiev, the new finance minister, Oleksandr Danyliuk, said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday, Reuters reported.

After months of stalling, Ukraine urgently needs to conclude talks with the IMF to unlock $1.7 billion in new loans that the government will receive in exchange for reforms and ending widespread corruption.

Ukraine's economy shrank by nearly a tenth last year under the impact of a Russian-backed separatist conflict in its eastern industrial heartland. Inflation has eased but still stood at more than 20 percent year-on-year in March.

Danyliuk took office on Thursday in the biggest political shakeup in Ukraine since the 2013/2014 Maidan street protests brought a pro-Western leadership to power, displacing a U.S.-born technocrat who had been favored by Washington.

The new government, headed by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, has sought to reassure Ukraine's Western-backers that reforms will not veer off track.

"For obvious reasons, the priority number one is the resumption of cooperation with the IMF," Danyliuk told the Ukrainian weekly Zerkalo Nedeli, promising to strengthen the role of his ministry as an "engine of reform.”

"If we ensure the growth, but we do not fit a little bit in the framework of the IMF, then during the negotiations, I think, it is realistic to achieve the revision of the criteria," he said.

Danyliuk's predecessor Natalia Jaresko earlier this year said that Ukraine's fight against corruption, pension reform and mending the state finances were on the agenda in the IMF talks.

Volodymyr Hroysman, the newly appointed prime minister, said on Thursday his government was committed to tackling Ukraine's endemic corruption and strengthening ties with the European Union.

A new government should allow talks to resume on the disbursement of a third tranche of loans from the International Monetary Fund worth $1.7 billion, delayed since October.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in February that Ukraine’s bailout would be at risk without major efforts to improve governance and clamp down on endemic corruption. (rt/ez)