In 14-hour press conference, Zelenskiy says Ukraine needs relations with IMF

KIEV (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Ukraine wanted to maintain its relations with the International Monetary Fund but wanted the IMF only to set economic conditions for disbursing loans.

Zelenskiy's administration is in talks for a new IMF loan programme that could be worth around $5-6 billion (4-4.8 billion pounds).

Previous IMF deals have set benchmarks on issues such as fighting corruption as well as economic issues like budget discipline.

Zelenskiy was speaking to reporters towards the end of a 14-hour-long news conference at a food court in Kiev.

"I don't think that the IMF should have to set us any conditions besides economic ones," he said. "We need to convince them."

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; writing by Maria Tsvetkova; editing by Matthias Williams and Sandra Maler)