Russia''s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has left for Moldova where he is due to have talks with President Vladimir Voronin, Prime Minister Zinaida Greceanii, and Foreign Minister Andrea Stratan.

Lavrov''s talks with Moldovan officials will focus on the prospects for bilateral cooperation and the ways of settling the dragged-out conflict around the breakaway Dniester region, which has been seeking independence from that country since the early 1990''s.

In the course of the visit, Lavrov will attend the ceremony of opening of the Center of Russian Culture and Science and will sign a program of inter-governmental cooperation in the humanitarian sphere for 2009 and 2010.