Russian electricity trader Inter RAO IRAO. RTS has increased its stake in a 2.5-gigawatt Moldovan power plant to 100 percent by buying another 49 percent of the plant for $163 million, it said on Wednesday.

Inter RAO bought the stake from Hungary's EMFESZ, and will pay for it with borrowed capital, the state-controlled company said in the statement.

In the medium term, Inter RAO plans to seek strategic investors for the power plant, called the Moldavian GRES in the town of Dnestrovsk, among Europe's largest energy companies, the statement said.

Aside from having a near monopoly on electricity imports and exports in Russia, Inter RAO owns power stations with a combined generating capacity of almost 8 gigawatts, both in Russia and other former Soviet countries.

It is expected to become one of the main blue chips representing the power sector after the liquidation this month of its power company, the former electricity monopoly Unified Energy System, as part of a sweeping reform of the power sector. (Reporting by Simon Shuster; Editing by David Cowell)

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Moldova will push for a deep free trade regime and EU membership prospect with the European Union, President Vladimir Voronin said at a meeting of the national commission for European integration on June 25. This objective should be one of the important strategic landmarks to be stipulated in the new agreement with the EU, Voronin said quoted by the Moldovan Pre.

“We should ask the European Commission to examine this problem in a short period, not later than spring 2009,” Voronin stressed. The president stressed that the Moldovan authorities should have a list of specific problems related to the adjustment of the legislation and practical measures that will be included in the future agreement with the EU. The objective of obtaining a regime of deep free trade with the EU can seem not so up-todate, as Moldova has already obtained the autonomous trade preferences, the president said. These preferences protect the local market, in a way, and allow a large variety of Moldovan goods to be freely marketed in the EU, Voronin said. “But it cannot last forever.

That is why, Moldova advocates a future free trade regime with the EU,” the Moldovan president stressed. Moldova should go through this issue and set the optimal deadline for its accession to the deep free trade regime. At the meeting, Voronin stressed that the new agreement between Moldova and the European Union should clearly stipulate its EU membership prospect without membership in NATO.