President Yeltsin has signed a decree allowing the sale of part of the state's forty percent share in the country's biggest gas company, Gazprom.

The Russian news agency, ITAR-TASS, said the decree, which takes effect today, allows for the auctioning of five-percent of Gazprom shares.

An earlier decision to proceed with the sale was postponed after the rouble devaluation in August.

The decree is said to allow foreign investors, who currently own around two percent of the company, to increase their holding up to a maximum of fourteen percent of shares.