MOSCOW, May 21 (RIA Novosti) - State rail monopoly Russian Railways could hold an initial public offering to raise around $25 billion for 25% of its stock minus one share, a company source said on Wednesday.

The source gave no information on the IPO's timeframe.

Russian Railways (RZD) Senior Vice-President Fyodor Andreyev said the company plans to issue Eurobonds totaling $3-4 billion in October-November 2008.

RZD will also float ruble-denominated bonds worth 20 billion rubles ($840 million) in July, he said.

RZD handles about 83% of all freight in Russia (excluding oil by pipelines) and carries 1.3 billion passengers and 1.3 billion metric tons of cargo annually.

The company has charter capital of 1,535 billion rubles ($65 billion).