"We request an increase in the number of Russian peacekeepers to 2,500," Igor Smirnov told a press conference in the capital, Tiraspol.
He dismissed proposals that an international peacekeeping force be brought into the region.
"I cannot see under what terms international peacekeepers could be deployed here," he said, adding that any change in the peacekeeping force format would require the agreement of all sides in the conflict, namely Moldova and Transdnestr.
Russia's peacekeeping contingent has been deployed in Transdnestr since the predominantly ethnic Russian region proclaimed its independence from Moldova in the early 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Last Thursday, a group of eight U.S. Representatives tabled a draft resolution urging Russia to withdraw its troops, weapons, and ammunition from the province. The resolution states Russia's military presence in Transdnestr is a violation of Moldova's sovereignty, and contradicts Moscow's formal pledge to withdraw by 2002.
The U.S. lawmakers proposed that the Russian troops currently deployed in Moldova's security zone be replaced by an international peacekeeping force under a mandate of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
