The participants in a new two-day round of talks, which ended in Tiraspol last Friday night, signed a concluding Protocol in which they welcomed the resumption of the Chisinau-Tiraspol negotiations that were attended, for the first time, by observers from the European Union and the United States.

The conflicting sides, mediators and observers addressed the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmitrij Rupel with a request to continue consultations about delegating an OSCE assessment mission to analyze situation and work our recommendations on holding free and democratic elections in Transnistria in the context of Ukrainian President Victor Yushenko's initiatives.

The protocol signors highlighted the need for carrying out, in the nearest future, a monitoring of enterprises of the Transnistrian military-industrial complex, after which preparation will be started of a package of documents entitled "Arms Control - Measures to Consolidate Trust and Security in Moldova". According to the Protocol, the mediators and observers have also offered to the conflicting sides to exchange, within a period ending on December 1, information about Moldovan and Transnistrian military subdivisions and their armaments.

The Protocol also says that the sides, mediators and observers call upon experts to continue drafting a protocol of monitoring of the enterprises of the Transnistrian military-industrial complex. It is believes that the monitoring will take 3 to 12 months, and the monitoring mission may pay repeated visits to the objects concerned. The conflicting sides' participation in the monitoring shall be out of the question.

The next round of talks in the 5+2 format has been scheduled for December 15 and 16 in Tiraspol and Chisinau.

The Protocol was signed by the talk participants and mediators, and the observers signed a separate Statement expressing their support of the Protocol.

Answering journalists' questions after the talks in Tiraspol, the participants pointed out the parties discussed the question of preparation to holding a democratic election in Transnistria in accordance with the Yushenko Plan.

The Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova William Hill reaffirmed the Transnistrian parliamentary elections, scheduled for this December 11, shall not be recognized by the world community.

The mediators stressed that to recognize the elections as legitimate, it is necessary to create appropriate conditions, and that the elections have to be conducted under international control. In their words, preparation to OSCE-standard elections shall only be commenced upon recommendation of the assessment mission to begin working in the nearest time.

Moldovan Minister of Country Reintegration Vasile Sova pointed out that upon completion of the assessment mission's work, 240 days must pass before elections. During that time, conditions have to be provided for conducting democratic elections. It is necessary to create an environment for free functioning of the mass media and Moldovan political parties. "It is necessary to let people have a breath of fresh air", said Vasile Sova.

Transnistrian minister of foreign affairs Valery Litkai remarked that Transnistria, throughout its 15-year-long history, solved all its important-most questions through referenda. "When questions arise deserving the holding of referenda of the entire nation, they shall be put up for such poll. Now we have just started the negotiations, and are only beginning to prepare questions for a referendum", he said.

Participants in the just held round of Transnistrian talks believe one more step was made towards Transnistrian conflict settlement.

Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova William Hill said after the talks that the conflicting sides are yet so far from one another, and a long, hard work has to be done. He underlined as very important the very fact of negotiation resumption. "Every road begins from the first step, and we have already made this step", he said.

All the participants in the meeting welcomed the re-start of permanent consultations on political issues in the framework of the Transnistrian negotiation process with the inclusion of EU and U.S.A. representatives as observers.

Transnistrian minister of foreign affairs Valery Litkai pointed out the new talk participants have organically joined the negotiation process, and Moldovan Minister of Country Reintegration Vasile Sova voiced hope the new format will permit to achieve big results in the conflict settlement.

William Hill said this round of talks was not at all easy. Its participants had to tackle a whole package of questions that had accumulated during the past 15 months of pause in the talks. He said the sides exchanged opinions about the situation in the Security Zone near the Dorotcaia village and de-blocking of the Joint Control Commission's work.

He said the OSCE Mission to Moldova is strongly concerned about the question of Russian troop withdrawal from Transnistria and recycling of Russian ammunition. These questions were raised during this round of talks, but without progress.

In his turn, minister Valery Litkai pointed out the problem of Russian troop removal is solved not in the framework of the pentalateral talks: "The ammunition withdrawal is carried out in the framework of accords between Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Nonetheless, the amount of ammunition stored in Transnistria has been steadily diminishing. There exist certain difficulties in that process, and as soon as they are solved, the problem will start moving towards solution".

The Russian Federation's Representative at the Transnistrian conflict negotiations, Ambassador-at-Large Valery Nesteroushkin remarked that the removal of arsenals is complicated due to lack of dialog between Chisinau and Tiraspol. So, upon resumption of political talks, favorable prerequisites will be created for arms removal resumption.

Concerning the Russian plan of Transnistrian settlement, which was handed in to talk participants at recent consultations in Odessa, Nesteroushkin said those Russian proposals should serve the development of the Ukrainian initiatives.

He said the Russian proposals are on the negotiation table alongside with other documents. All these documents should help the conflicting sides to work out a mutually acceptable model of conflict settlement.

The Russian diplomat underlined the Russian position has not changed: Moscow stands for an all-embracing and sustainable settlement, and for providing Transnistria with a reliably guaranteed special legal status in the framework of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova.

Mr. Nesteroushkin offered a supposition that the Russian proposals may come to be needed by the sides at the final stage of the Transnistrian conflict settlement. Minister Vasile Sova stated, "There exist only the Yushenko Plan and Moldova's proposals, and all the rest documents should be in correspondence with these two. We have not received the Russian plan officially, and I have not seen that document".