KIEV (REUTERS) - Ukraine's new prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Thursday accused the government of ousted President Viktor Yanukovich of stripping state coffers bare and said US$37 billion (S$47 billion) of credit it had received had disappeared.

Speaking in parliament before he was appointed head of a national unity government, Mr Yatsenyuk said that in the past three years "the sum of 70 billion dollars was paid out of Ukraine's financial system into off-shore accounts".

"I want to report to you - the state treasury has been robbed and is empty," he said. "37 billion dollars of credit received have disappeared in an unknown direction," he added.

The situation was so grave that there was no other alternative but to take "extraordinarily unpopular measures," he said.