WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is mulling providing a US$1 billion (S$1.26 billion) loan guarantee to help Ukraine stave off economic collapse, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday.

"We are formulating initially a US$1 billion loan guarantee with some other pieces," Kerry told a small group of reporters, adding the European Union was also looking at offering US$1.5 billion in loan guarantees to the former Soviet satellite.