WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 ??“ Ukraine??™s economy will be expanding robustly at the pace of between 6% and 7% annually during the next five years, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych told an American audience in Washington Monday.

The forecast is more optimistic than has been earlier predicted by the International Monetary Fund, which had forecast the rate of growth at between 4.5% and 5.5% in 2007.