MOSCOW. Nov 27 (Interfax) - The Russian Energy Ministry has for now rejected a request by the Federal Grid Company (FGC) to allow it to hold onto generating assets for a period of three years.

"The preliminary response has been to reject this, Deputy Energy Minister Vyacheslav Sinyugin told a briefing.

The Energy Ministry has said the FGC wanted the law changed to enable it to combine grid operating functions with power generating and to keep hold of the assets that it inherited from RAO UES of Russia for a period of three years. "A decision will be reached once the Energy Ministry has analyzed all the possible implications [of the proposed changes]," the ministry said at the beginning of November.

"The [grid] company wants to hold shares in generating companies and wait until the equity markets pick up before selling them to raise funds for its investment program," a grid company representative told Interfax earlier. At the same time, "generating is not a core business for the FGC," he said.

The FGC received 23.6% of the shares in the TGK-6 generating company, 32.2% of Volga TGK , 27.5% of TGK-11 , 18.9% of Kuzbassenergo (