STRELNA, July 16 (RIA Novosti) - State companies will follow the example of the recent Rosneft's initial public offering by selling shares to Russian citizens, the finance minister said Sunday.

"Yes, we will have the practice of selling shares to Russian citizens," Alexei Kudrin told a news conference at the summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in St. Petersburg.

The minister said his ministry had given this recommendation to several Russian state-run companies that were planning to start IPO procedures in the near future, but did not mention any specific names.

Russia's Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref, known as one of the government's free market champions, said Saturday that there were no plans for Gazprom to follow the oil company's example.

"In the gas sector we have one company and are not planning to hold an IPO. We only just bought a state package in it and are paying for it with the Rosneft IPO," he said.

The state bought a stake of 10.74% in Gazprom for $7.5 billion in June 2005.

However, Gref said that plans were being drafted to hold IPOs for other Russian energy and automotive companies.