By David Ferguson in Brussels

With an EU-funded border assistance mission set to start along the Moldova-Ukraine border on 1 December, European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner expressed the hope that the mission will hit hard at the revenue sources of breakaway government led by Igor Smirnov in Tiraspol. "It is an important step towards facilitating the end of the frozen conflict in Transnistria," said Ferrero-Waldner.

"We should not forget that while the majority of Europe's citizens can take peace for granted, for others, that peace is yet to be won. And while there is conflict - even frozen conflict - on any part of our continent, none of us can live in total security," she added.

Ferrero-Waldner called the Ukraine-Moldova mission a 'significant' contribution to the EU's security. "The Mission will build capacity for border management, including customs, on the whole Moldova-Ukraine border," the EU Commissioner said, speaking to the Conference of Foreign Affairs Committee Chairmen of EU Member and Candidate states in London.

"The mission will help prevent trafficking in people, smuggling of goods, the proliferation of weapons and customs fraud. And ensuring that money previously diverted from Moldova's customs revenues ends up in the right place," said Ferrero-Waldner.

For Ferrero-Waldner, the Moldova-Ukraine border mission is part of the EU's expanding interests in the former Soviet Union: "Not only do we now have borders with Belarus and Ukraine but we also have a much longer border with Russia. Within a couple of years we will have a border with Moldova, Macedonia, Serbia-Montenegro and the Black Sea region," said Ferrero-Waldner.

Such talk does not go down well with Moscow. Speaking earlier this month at a conference organized by Brussels think-tank Center for European Policy, Russia's EU Ambassador Vladimir Chizhov said borders were not a matter for the EU. "Border agreements are not a Russia-EU issue. They are bilateral matters between Russia and its neighbors," said Chizhov.

"You may claim that Moldova is an immediate neighbor of the EU, but so is Iraq in a certain manner after the opening of negotiations with Turkey," added Vladimir Chizhov. The Russian EU ambassador, whilst welcoming EU and US involvement in negotiations on a settlement to Moldova's Transnistrian conflict, stressed that Russian troops will be there as long as 'needed'.

"The troops will certainly leave earlier than those stationed in Iraq," said Chizhov. "Nobody wants to see these troops back home more than we do in Russia."