TIRASPOL, Moldova -- The commander of Russian troops in Moldova, who is resisting Moscow's plans to reduce the army's presence there, has been offered a new job at the other end of the former Soviet Union, an army source said.


Lieutenant-General Alexander Lebed has protested at Moscow's agreement with the government of Moldova to cut troop numbers, saying it could upset a delicate peace established after fighting killed hundreds in the former Soviet republic in 1992.


The source said Lebed, who was called urgently to Moscow on Sunday for talks at the defense ministry, had telephoned him after a Monday meeting at Russia's army headquarters.


He said he had been offered a job running ex-Soviet troops in the remote Central Asian republic of Tajikistan, the senior source told Reuters by telephone.


Lebed turned the job down, warning that the 14th Army "could go out of control."


But the source said the army boss was clearly crestfallen after his talks, realizing that he would no longer be in charge of the Russian 14th Army in Moldova if the general staff insisted he take up the post in Tajikistan.


Lebed complained Monday that decision to cut back his headquarters in the Dnestr region of Moldova, and withdraw his army back to Russia within three years, could sap morale and rekindle violence in Moldova's rebel Dnestr region.


Lebed, at 42 Russia's most popular military officer, said force could not be used to solve the dispute pitting Moldova's largely ethnic Romanian leadership against Slav separatists in the country's eastern Dnestr region.


Lebed sent in his tanks two years ago to halt fighting between Dnestr and Moldovan forces. Since then its overwhelming firepower has kept the balance in the region.


Lebed has called the decision to remove the army a crime. He says the withdrawal should be delayed pending a political settlement between Moldova and the Dnestr region, where the 15,000 troops of the Russian 14th army are stationed.