MOSCOW, February 28 - RAPSI. A commercial court postponed until April 3 its hearing of the Moscow Property Department's lawsuit to cancel the Europe Square's ownership of floor space in central Moscow, the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.ru) reported on Tuesday.

The plaintiff requested the court to adjourn preliminary hearing, saying that "the settlement of the dispute is at the final stage." The court earlier suspended the case several times for the same reason.

The Moscow Property Management Department earlier said that although it had no share in the Evropeisky Trade Center by law, it has the right to a part of the center under the investment contract. According to the department, the125,900 square meter area is owned by the Kiev Square company and the 53,900 square meters of floor space belong to the Europe Square.

In its lawsuit filed with the Moscow Commercial Court, the department sought to annul the registration of the ownership rights to the trade center by the Europe Square and the Kiev Square (Kievskaya Ploshchad) companies.

Earlier the department said that the parties were to receive property in the trade center in accordance with the act on the investment project fulfillment. But the act was not signed by the Moscow government, which is a party to the contract.

Meanwhile, the Moscow Property Department (owns 30 percent in trade center) and the Kiev Square (owns 70 percent) are the shareholders of the Europe Square, which actually owns 53,900 square meters. The department stated though that no specific area was allocated to the city.

At the same time, the investment contract on the construction of the trade center stipulated that some 30 percent of the constructed building will belong to the capital.

According to the report, the Evropeisky Trade Center's total area is 179,900 square meters, which exceeds its initial floor space by 102,900 square meters. Thus, the Moscow government believes that it is entitled to any trade space that was additionally built as part of its investment project.