A series of meetings held by Romanian Foreign minister Lazar Comanescu with top Republic of Moldova officials on Monday were aimed at marking a period of ice-breaking in the bilateral relations, but all press statements were veiled in caution and only showed readiness to "fortify political, economic and social relations" between the two countries. Minister Comanescu held talks with Moldovan PM Zinaida Grechany, President Vladimir Voronin and counterpart Andrei Stratan.

As the media did not have access to official meetings, statements made by Comanescu and Stratan fail to provide a clear view whether progress was reported in bilateral relations, but showed caution and suggested that some issues such as the bilateral and the border treaties are still taboo subjects.

The Moldovan Foreign minister said the agenda of talks spanned a large number of bilateral issues, but did not point any of them. He assured that talks and the dialogue for "solving existing problems" continues.

As authorities in Chisinau are due to talk with Brussels representatives on Tuesday about the cooperation between their country and the European Union, they discussed with minister Comanescu about the EU-oriented aspirations of the Moldovan Republic.

For his part, Comanescu said that interested ministries in Romania have offered their expertise.

Meanwhile, Moldovan officials suggested they were ready to re-start talks on the establishing of new Romanian consulates in the Republic of Moldova. Foreign minister Stratan said there was a possibility that talks on opening consulates in Balti and Cahul be re-opened as such talks are not influenced by third factors.

Authorities in Bucharest have been insisting on the opening of two new consulates as the consular sections in Chisinau were unable to deal with the large number of applications fr