Exclusive - West holds off on Ukraine aid pledges, seeking reforms

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko attends a news conference after a signing ceremony with Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan in Kiev March 20, 2015. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - International lenders are delaying plans to offer Ukraine billions of dollars on concerns Kiev cannot yet prove the cash will not vanish into a corrupt economy which EU officials fear could remain a "bottomless pit".

Ukrainian authorities are still preparing a much-anticipated donor conference for April 28 but EU officials told Reuters that Western governments and agencies are now expected to meet in Kiev only late in the year, giving Ukraine longer to draw up more detailed proposals for how it would spend the money efficiently.