TIRASPOL, February 14. /TASS/. Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria is ready to continue talks on the conflict settlement with Moldova in the "5+2" format that also involves mediators from Russia, the OSCE European security agency, Ukraine as well as observers from the EU and the US, Transnistria’s President Vadim Krasnoselsky said on Tuesday.

"We are in favor of continuing the process of negotiations no matter how difficult it may be, and for having the 5+2 platform preserved," the president said as he met with Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador at Large Sergey Gubarev.

Last year, participants in the 5+2 format met only once, thus breaking a pause continuing for the past two years, but then the dialog stalled again. Gubarev said all participants in 5+2 state their readiness to resume negotiations.

"I was sincerely glad to see the readiness of the Moldovan side to intensively get down to negotiations. This morning we discussed with (Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister Gheorghe) Balan some practical issues, and I think we are close to finding a mutually acceptable solution," the Russian diplomat said.

Focusing on position of the Russian side, Gubarev said Moscow will continue abiding by its commitments as intermediary in the settlement of relations between Chisinau and Tiraspol as well as guarantor of the agreements reached at talks.

Transnistria, a largely Russian-speaking region, broke away from Moldova following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Its relations with Moldova’s central government in Chisinau have been highly mixed and extremely tense at times ever since then. In 1992 and 1993, tensions erupted into a bloody armed conflict that claimed the lives of hundreds of people on both sides.

The fratricidal war was stopped after a peace agreement was signed in Moscow in 1992 and Russian peacekeepers were brought into the conflict area. Negotiations on the conflict’s peaceful settlement known as the 5+2 format talks (Moldova, Transnistria as parties to the conflict, the OSCE, Russia and Ukraine as mediators, and the European Union and the United States as observers) started after that.