(FRANKFURT) - Russia is trying to force German airline Lufthansa to shift its Asian cargo hub from Kazakhstan to Siberia, the Financial Times Deutschland reported Friday after Moscow banned cargo flights from using its airspace.

"We wrote to our German colleagues on October 22, proposing that they use Krasnoyarsk in Siberia as a future hub," Russian transport ministry spokesman Timur Khikmatov told the newspaper.

He told AFP later that Moscow completely respected agreements on traffic between Russia and Germany, and that the overflight issue involved a temporary request by the cargo carrier for additional flights that had expired.

Khikmatov added that, according to the Chicago Convention on international civil aviation, "all countries have the right to force a plane flying over its territory to land."

He did not say the Russian government was considering such a move.

German foreign ministry spokeswoman Julia Gross said "very intensive" talks were under way involving the economy, foreign and transport ministries, and that Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had spoken by telephone with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov about the issue.

It "is going to be resolved at the national level," she told a press conference.

At Lufthansa Cargo, a spokesman told AFX News that moving its operations to a Siberian airfield was "out of the question."

"Technical conditions at the airports mentioned absolutely do not satisfy international standards," he said.

According to the Financial Times, Krasnoyarsk lacks guides for fog-bound landings.

Lufthansa Cargo, one of the world's biggest air cargo carriers, now uses Astana in Kazakhstan as its base for Asian services, but was barred on Sunday from entering Russian airspace, adding several hours to flights headed there.

Astana lies roughly 1,500 kilometers (940 miles) to the west of Krasnoyarsk.

"The Russian government would like to see our hub in Siberia," a Lufthansa Cargo spokesman told AFP, adding that Novosibirsk was another airport that had been mentioned.

Detours have increased the carrier's fuel costs by about 400,000 dollars (280,000 euros) per week, meanwhile.

The German news weekly Der Spiegel quoted in its online edition a Lufthansa spokesman as saying: "Russia's ban is causing us huge losses, because it means we have to reroute flights to Japan, China, North Korea and Singapore. It takes a lot longer and costs a lot of money."

Khikmatov told AFP that Lufthansa could decide "to go around Russia but it will cost less to land at our airport."

The cargo airline uses US-built McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freighters which have a range that prevents direct flights to Asian capitals, press reports said.

On Monday, cargo flights by the Russian airline Aeroflot were barred from landing in Frankfurt, but the measure was lifted the next day "as a goodwill gesture," according to a transport ministry spokesman.

Khikmatov told AFP Friday that Russia had offered the use of a Siberian airport as part of a new accord to replace one that expired on Saturday, but that instead, Germany "launched a press campaign accusing us of blackmail."

"We are within our rights in making this proposition," he said.

But Der Spiegel said several German lawmakers felt the move was illegal.

"The Russians want the airport (in Krasnoyarsk) to become a new platform towards Europe at any price," it quoted one unidentified deputy as saying.

"It's an affair worth billions that the Russians won't give up on."

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