Merkel Urges Progress in Ukraine on Forming Government

German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed Monday a political amnesty in Ukraine as a "positive step" but urged progress now on a new government, after talks with pro-EU opposition leaders, her spokesman said.

Merkel stressed that Germany and the EU would do everything to contribute towards a "positive outcome" to the country's worst post-Soviet crisis, spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to reject an EU trade deal in favor of closer ties with Russia has sparked nearly three months of protests.

A law dropping criminal charges against hundreds of protesters came into force Monday a day after they left municipal buildings occupied in December, in a small step to resolving the crisis.

"The agreement on an amnesty for demonstrators is, in her opinion, a positive step," Seibert said referring to the chancellor.

"Now, however, things mustn't stop; now the point is to energetically push ahead with progress on forming a government and reform of the constitution," he added.

Merkel, together with Vitali Klitschko, a former champion boxer turned opposition leader and Arseniy Yatsenyuk, another opposition leader, agreed in their talks in Berlin that the situation remained "extremely tense," he said.

Yatsenyuk, a pro-EU former foreign minister of the Batkivshchyna party of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, told a news conference after meeting Merkel, that: "Our European partners are ready to support."

The European Union has said it stands ready to extend conditional financial assistance to Ukraine in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund and other global players but only on condition that reforms are implemented.

Last year the EU had said it was ready to provide Kiev with a 610-million-euro ($825-million) loan if it adopted a comprehensive economic restructuring package prescribed by the IMF.

On Monday, Russia said it would release $2-bln in aid to Ukraine this week.