The Government wants to maintain the price of USD 160 for natural gas delivered by the Russian Concern “Gazprom” for a longer period, the deputy prime-minister Zinaida Grecianai declared at a press conference at the end of this week. According to her, an agreement signed by the delegation of Moldova and the leadership of “Gazprom” stipulates that until October 1 a new long-term delivery contract will be concluded. A Moldovan delegation is permanently negotiating with the Russian concern on signing a long-term contract, Grecianai said. She mentioned that Moldovan delegation aims at identifying all possibilities for signing a long-term contract but without “affecting the price for natural gas”, Grecianai said. Although the deputy prime-minister said that it is hard to find clients able of paying the European price for natural gas on the Moldovan market, she gave to understand that the result of the negotiations is different from the planned one. The prime-minister Vasile Tarlev declared previously that he is optimistic regarding the final results of the talks, because the Russian part showed its willingness to cooperate with Moldova and even for some investment projects. At the same time, he mentioned that on October 1, the leadership of Moldova and “Gazprom” will sign a natural gas delivery contract for a term of 10 years in order to make the bilateral collaboration stable.