Norwegian foreign minister Børge Brende made the commitment after he arrived in Kiev on Thursday to hold talks with the country's new interim government. 

 

"When Ukraine confirms that it will implement reforms, we will specify the initiatives Norway will take to get Ukraine out of its economic morass," Brende told NRK. 

 

He also called for the new government to bring in measures enshrining the rights of Russian-speaking minorities to the east of the country. 

 

The announcement came as Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg prepared to meet Yulia Tymoshenko, the opposition politician and former Ukrainian Prime Minister who was released from jail last month. 

 

Before the meeting, Solberg said she was not backing Tymoshenko, a former Prime Minister who is viewed with suspicion by many of the protestors who forced President Yanukovich from power last month. 

 

"We do not want to pick who will head Ukraine," Solberg said, when asked if Tymoshenko would make a good partner for the West. 

 

Brende in Kiev gave his backing to the new interim government. 

 

"I see it as a good and representative government," he said. "I think it's a government we can work with." 

 

He stressed that it was Ukraine's previous leadership which had caused the present economic crisis. 

 

"It has been the mismanagement of Ukraine in recent years that has left the country almost bankrupt," he said. 

 

Despite this, he said that Norway would begin supporting the new government through international bodies even before anti-corruption measures were put in place. 

 

"We will step up financial support in the future in cooperation with the EU, the US and the International Monetary Fund," he said.