KIEV, March 31 - The International Monetary Fund should be ready to hand Ukraine the first $3 billion of a new aid package next month, the Fund's top European official said on Monday, drawing a line under two failed programs with the country in recent years.

"The Ukrainian economy has needed reform for many years," Reza Moghadam, Director of the IMF's European Department, said in an interview with Reuters Insider television. "With the new government we have managed to reach an agreement on the type of policies they would implement so that we could support them with a financial program.