WASHINGTON, July 28 - The International Monetary Fund on Thursday said it had not yet decided to resume a bailout of war-torn Ukraine, which the crisis lender halted over corruption concerns last year, AFP reported.

A spokesman for the Fund had earlier this month held out the possibility of a resumption by the end of July.

Since last August, Ukraine has received no new IMF disbursements from a $17.5 billion bailout package approved in April last year.

“We expect that Ukraine would be taken up by the executive board sometime when the board reconvenes… possibly in August or September,” IMF spokesman William Murray told a news conference.

Any resumption of funding would have to be approved by the board, which represents 189 member countries.

IMF chief spokesman Gerry Rice said July 14 that some technical issues still needed to be resolved for Ukraine tranche to be disbursed. Rice said if approval was delayed, it could be considered again in mid-August, after the board's summer recess.

The IMF loans have helped Ukraine pull itself out of two years of economic recession caused by a separatist conflict in its industrial east. But a third tranche of cash from the Fund has been delayed since October due to political upheaval.

Ukraine is currently awaiting the next $1.6 billion tranche from the bailout, intended to help stabilize the country following the 2014 ouster of the pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych. So far $6.6 billion have been disbursed.

After two years of war, the country has suffered deep economic contractions, with GDP dropping 9.9 percent last year after falling 6.6 percent in 2014.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in February that, without substantial anticorruption and reform efforts from officials in Kiev, a resumption of funding could be difficult.

Reforms prescribed by the IMF have been tough and unpopular in Ukraine but local lawmakers have approved measures proposed by the Fund.

Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk said earlier in July that Ukraine was hoping to receive $4.3 billion from the IMF by the end of this year. He said there were only technical issues left in the negotiations between Ukraine and the IMF. (afp/nr/ez)