ST. PETERSBURG, October 29 (RIA Novosti) - St. Petersburg shipyard Baltiysky Zavod has started sea trials of a new diesel-electric icebreaker in the Baltic Sea, the company said on Wednesday.

The Moskva icebreaker is the first ship in a new generation of multipurpose icebreakers built by Baltiysky Zavod under a $185 million contract with Rosmoport, Russia's state-run port management company. The ship was floated out in May 2007.

"For two weeks specialists from the shipyard will tests the vessel's maneuverability and the operation of all mechanisms under normal seafaring conditions. The trials will be carried out in the Gulf of Finland," the shipyard said in a statement.

The Moskva-class icebreakers are designed to escort large-capacity tankers, to salvage and rescue ships caught in ice floe, to clean up oil and chemicals spillage in open sea and to fight fires on board ships in the Arctic.

The vessel's hull can break up 1-meter-thick ice formations.

The Moskva is the first icebreaker with a diesel-electric power plant to be built at a Russian shipyard in 32 years. During that time, all Russia's non-nuclear icebreakers were built abroad.