KIEV, Feb. 26 – Key political leaders will hold a meeting on Friday to try to agree on anti-crisis measures that would Ukraine to resume borrowing from the International Monetary Fund and avert default.

The meeting will be chaired by President Viktor Yushchenko and will also include Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych, the Parliamentary speaker and the National Bank of Ukraine governor.

“This is a very good example that a dialog begins between the government, the National Bank, Parliament, and we are going to have the meeting with the president,” Petro Poroshenko, the head of the NBU’s Council, said at a press conference.

The meeting comes as Ukraine’s credit ratings have been downgraded by Standards & Poor’s to levels indicating vulnerability to default amid concerns that the government has been failing to resume cooperation with the IMF.

The IMF earlier this month decided to postpone $1.9 billion installment from its $16.4 billion rescue package that had been approved last year, amid concerns the government has been refusing to narrow budget deficit.

Ukraine appears to be one of the countries that are hardest hit by the on-going crisis as credit crunch had postponed construction projects throughout the world, undermining demand for steel, Ukraine’s main exports.

Ukraine’s currency, the hryvnia, lost more than 50% of its value against the U.S. dollar over the past six months, and many analysts see the country’s economy contracting 10% in 2009.

Tymoshenko has so far been insisting that the economy was still on track to expand 0.4% on the year, and has been refusing to accept budget spending cuts to qualify for the IMF installment.

Yushchenko, who called on the meeting amid the country’s worsening economic performance, said the IMF’s conditions for the loan include measures to be taken in regards of taxes, budget, monetary and exchange rate policy, and will require support in Parliament.

“The IMF wants to see not declarations, but real consolidation among political groups over measures needed for improving the Ukrainian economy,” Yushchenko’s office said in a statement.

Ukraine seeks to get at least $9.6 billion from the IMF this year to help the NBU fend off attacks on the hryvnia and to boost confidence in the country’s economy, according to Anatoliy Shapovalov, first deputy governor of the NBU.

The NBU, whose forex reserves dropped to below $27 billion, has spent more tan $3 billion on currency interventions supporting the hryvnia since the beginning of the year. (tl/ez)