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Transdnestr '5+2' talks could resume June 28 - EU envoy

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CHISINAU, June 15 (RIA Novosti) - Stalled "5+2" negotiations aimed at finding a peaceful resolution to the situation in Moldova's breakaway province of Transdnestr, could restart June 28, the EU special envoy for Moldova said Friday.

Kalman Mizsei said the Transdnestr conflict has neither religious nor ethnic roots, while Moldova is a single and indivisible state.

He said the international community hopes there will be no more delays and the parties in the conflict will resume peace talks soon.

The "5+2" negotiations (Moldova, Transdnestr, Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE, the EU and the U.S.) broke off in February 2006.

But Transdnestr President Igor Smirnov said the negotiations could only resume once Moldova lifts economic sanctions on the republic.

He also asked that Russia double its 1,300-strong peacekeeping contingent.

"We request an increase in the number of Russian peacekeepers to 2,500," he said.

He dismissed proposals that an international peacekeeping force be brought into the region.

Russia's peacekeeping contingent has been deployed in Transdnestr since the predominantly ethnic Russian region proclaimed its independence from Moldova in the early 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Last Thursday, a group of eight U.S. Representatives moved a draft resolution urging Russia to withdraw its troops, weapons, and ammunition from the province. The resolution states Russia's military presence in Transdnestr is a violation of Moldova's sovereignty, and contradicts Moscow's formal pledge to withdraw by 2002.

The U.S. lawmakers proposed that the Russian troops currently deployed in Moldova's security zone be replaced by an international peacekeeping force under a mandate of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

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