The Russian government has gone ahead with long-delayed plans to reform the country's foreign oil trade, but has not replaced oil export quotas with mandatory domestic sales as reformists had feared, a key government official said Thursday.


A government resolution signed Saturday by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin enforces a presidential decree to lift oil export quotas as of Jan. 1, but replaces the quota system with quarterly government-approved export allocations, according to an official who took part in drafting the document. The resolution, which had not yet reached the government's press service by Thursday evening, also cuts tariffs on oil exports from 30 ecu ($37) per ton to 23 ecu per ton, the official said.


The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the government had dropped a controversial requirement that domestic oil companies and refineries sell 65 percent of their output in Russia.


The proposed 65 percent rule, which many government officials expected to be included in the document, had drawn heavy criticism from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which have made billions of dollars in loans contingent on liberalization of Russia's foreign oil trade.


Charles Blitzer, chief economist of the World Bank office in Moscow, said Thursday that the resolution was "a definite step forward," but described it as "blurred and ambiguously worded."


"We are glad the mandatory domestic sales are not imposed," Blitzer said. But "there has been a very serious fight over this issue and people will continue to fight."


Government reformers, including Economics Minister Yevgeny Yasin and Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais, have demanded the liberalization of oil exports as a key factor in free-market reforms. But the powerful oil lobby has put up fierce resistance to measures to free exports, arguing that they would explode domestic fuel prices and result in a national crisis.


The resolution states that all companies will have equal access to export facilities, but that each potential exporter will need to obtain quarterly export allocations from a joint government commission, according to the government official.


The commission, which would include representatives of the Economics Ministry, the Fuel and Energy Ministry and the Foreign Trade Ministry, would dole out access to Russia's limited export pipeline capacity each quarter according to potential exporters' domestic sales and supplies to the government.


The resolution sets no specific percentage of the total oil output companies must sell domestically before striking foreign deals. Instead, the government reserves the opportunity to change the domestic sales criteria on a quarterly basis, delegating the dispute to the joint commission.


Under the outgoing regulations, most oil export quotas were assigned for a period of one year. Further details of the new procedures will be designed by the Foreign Trade Ministry by Jan. 14, according to the resolution.