You're reading: Moldova holds first talks with new leader of rebel region

CHISINAU, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Moldova's prime minister and the new leader of a rebel region agreed on Friday to increase contacts between their populations and improve cross-border trading and telephone links.

Transdniestria, a narrow strip of land along Moldova’s border with Ukraine, separated from the rest of the country by the Dniester river, has been de facto independent since a 1992 war with the central government.

Most of its 500,000 residents are Russian speakers who feared they would become second-class citizens when the Soviet Union broke up in 1991 and Moldova became independent.

But the breakaway territory has failed to gain recognition.

International talks involving Russia, the United States and the European Union have failed over the years to make progress on settling its status. Transdniestria has existed in an international limbo supported by heavily subsidised supplies of Russian energy.

The election in December of Yevgeny Shevchuk, a 43-year-old lawyer, to replace the veteran Igor Smirnov as Transdniestrian leader has now raised cautious hopes in Moldova of finally settling its status.

One of Shevchuk’s first steps after assuming power was to scrap a 100-percent import duty on Moldovan goods.

Shevchuk and Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat emerged from talks in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa on Friday to say they were satisfied with their first contact – though they had avoided talking about the territory’s status and the presence of several hundreds Russian peacekeepers there which irks Moldova.

"The main result of our first dialogue is the full frankness (shown by) the sides," Filat told journalists.

He said the two sides would get down to tackling economic problems such as truck movements across the border and establishing better telephone links.

Shevchuk avoided journalists’ questions about future status and the Russian military presence, saying it was better to build up from smaller problems to larger issues.

"We think it is better to follow a tactic of ‘small steps’," he said. "We consider it premature at the present moment to broach these questions."

The presence of Russian peacekeepers came under the spotlight at the start of the year when an 18-year-old Moldovan died of a gunshot wound after a Russian peacekeeper opened fire on his car.

The car had failed to heed warnings to stop as it passed a checkpoint in the no-man’s land between Moldova and Transdniestria.

Moldovan and Transdniestrian leaders plan in February to resume formal reconciliation talks which are sponsored by Russia, Ukraine, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the United States and the European Union.

Moldova wants to reintegrate the region, which depends heavily on financial assistance from Russia. Moscow advocates granting Transdniestria special status as part of Moldova as a possible solution.