Pro-Russian breakaway region refuses to have talks with Moldovan authorities

Moldova's separatist Transdniestria region on Thursday rejected a call from mediators to resume talks with the ex-Soviet state's leaders and accused them of trying to impose new trade constraints, Reuters said.

Igor Smirnov, the region's self-styled president, rejected a proposal for talks after a meeting on Wednesday with officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the country wedged between Ukraine and Romania.

Smirnov said Moldova was proposing the imposition of import restrictions that would stifle industry in his Russian-speaking region - a sliver of land hugging the Ukrainian border and the focal point of one of the ex-Soviet Union's "frozen conflicts."

"Imports would be possible only through Moldova. That would create new problems for Transdniestria's factories," Smirnov said on his website. "This has the sole aim of controlling our export-import flows and increasing duties for their treasury."

Transndniestria broke away from Moldova in 1990, in Soviet times, on grounds that Moldova's Romanian-speaking majority might decide one day to join with Romania to its west. The two sides fought a brief war in 1992.

Relations between Moldova and the separatists deteriorated in 2006 when central authorities, backed by the European Union, tightened control over exports from Transdniestria, acting against reports of illegal trade from the region.

The separatists, supported by Russia, which still has forces there, denounced that move as an "economic blockade."

Smirnov met twice last year with Moldova's Communist president, Vladimir Voronin, their first contact in seven years, though both sides remained entrenched in their positions.