KIEV, Feb. 23 – Ukrainian officials on Wednesday pledged to correct the government’s economic policies quickly, following the European Union’s suspension of 107 million euros in budget lending amid growing concerns over corruption.

The move by the E.U. is the first sign that foreign lenders are growing increasingly concerned over President Viktor Yanukovych’s economic and financial policies.

It may have broader implications and possibly affect other lending options unless Ukraine moves quickly to fix the problem by approving legislation making the government’s purchases more transparent.

“There are some 12 amendments that we have still failed to approve and this has been causing certain concerns among the Europeans,” Serhiy Tyhypko, the first deputy prime minister, said Wednesday. “There is a respective instruction that we must quickly approve these amendments.”

The instruction has been apparently issued by Yanukovych after the latest developments had been discussed with other government officials at an economic policy meeting on Tuesday.

The problem emerged over the way the government had recently started to spend budget money on purchasing certain goods and commodities without proper transparency and without accepting competitive bids.

A special legislation, approved by Parliament on Jan. 11 and signed by Yanukovych into law, allowed the government to buy fuel and other energy resources by skipping competitive bids.

This opened possibilities for corruption by potentially letting well-connected companies to sell the resources to the government at greater than market prices.

The legislation forced EU to withdraw about 31 million euros in funding that had been originally aimed at financing Ukraine’s energy efficiency projects.

“The EU officially informed us about suspending the budget aid,” Tetiana Kovryha, a spokeswoman for the National Agency for Effective Use of Energy Resources, told Kommersant daily.

The move immediately suspended at least 107 million euros in two lending programs in 2011, but it may also derail talks over 610 million loan that are currently underway between Ukraine and the EU.

The developments come as Ukraine is awaiting a decision by the International Monetary Fund next month over the release of $1.6 billion installment within $15.2 billion loan.

Ukraine, whose economy contracted 15% on the year in 2009, has been relying on foreign lending to bridge budget gap and to avoid crippling budget cuts that could be politically too sensitive.

European politicians have been so far more critical of Yanukovych’s domestic politics and democracy record after his government had moved to crack down on opposition leaders over the past 12 months.

But the suspension of lending is the first signal that the EU has been growing concerned with the economic policies as well, and that may have an immediate financial impact on Ukraine.

Meanwhile, as government officials promised a quick action on the new legislation, Ukraine’s diplomats have blamed the developments on politics.

A Ukrainian diplomat said the report was an attempt by the EU to turn a “technical and financial” issue into a “political” one.

“This is a cause of concern,” the diplomat said, but added “the issue will be solved soon through a dialog.” (tl/ez)