A draft treaty on the status of Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniestria has been published in Moldovan state press.

According to the draft, which has been prepared with international mediators from Russia, Ukraine and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Moldova is to become a federal state, and each part of the federation will have its own constitution.

The state language of the country will be Moldovan, which is effectively Romanian, but different parts of the federation will have their own official language.

The treaty does not specify how many federal entities there will be.

Besides the separatist Transdniestria region, which is mainly Slav, Moldova also contains the autonomous region of Gagauz, with a predominantly Turkic population.

The Moldovan authorities had earlier said that they would consider granting broad autonomy to the region, but dismissed the idea of a federation.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service