Romania is "ready to clear up" allegations that the country hosted secret CIA detention centres, the foreign ministry said Tuesday -- though it stressed that Bucharest had "no proof" such prisons existed.

Romanian authorities were "fully available to clear up the allegations" that Bucharest colluded with the CIA on the transfer of terrorist suspects to CIA "black sites" established for the purposes of torture, the ministry said.

Moldova went to the polls on Sunday in a crucial parliamentary election that will help determine whether the impoverished ex-Soviet country pursues integration with Europe or returns to Russia's fold.

Polling stations opened at 7:00 am (05:00 GMT), with voters facing a choice between political parties aiming for membership in the European Union and those that back joining Russia in a customs union.

Weakened by his defeat in the recent presidential election, Romania's Prime Minister Victor Ponta faces a new test in talks with the IMF over the 2015 budget in one of the poorest countries in Europe.

A mission from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union is expected in Bucharest on Tuesday to discuss a budget that had been delayed due to November 16's vote, which led to the surprise choice of centre-right leader Klaus Iohannis as the next president.

A 5.7 magnitude quake shook eastern Romania on Saturday evening and was felt as far away as the capital Bucharest, the National Institute for Earth Physics said, though no injuries were reported.

The epicenter of the earthquake was in the Vrancea region, some 200 kilometers (150 miles) northeast of Bucharest.

A Romanian military helicopter flying to take part in a joint exercise with U.S. forces crashed on Friday, killing eight servicemen on board and injuring two, the defense ministry said.

The Romanian-built IAR-330 Puma helicopter came down near the central town of Malancrav, a ministry official told AFP. An investigation has been opened into the crash.

Romania's Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu resigned on Tuesday, the second to quit over problems with voting abroad during the eastern European nation's presidential election.

Melescanu said he would submit his resignation at a government meeting later on Tuesday, after thousands of Romanian diaspora were unable to cast ballots in the second round of the presidential poll on Sunday.

Hours after pulling off Romania's biggest political earthquake since the revolution which overthrew Nicolae Ceausescu, the country's soft-spoken new president followed through Monday on his vow to tackle corruption.

Klaus Iohannis, the ethnic German mayor of the medieval Transylvanian city of Sibiu won a shock second-round election victory on Sunday, defeating the heavily-tipped Prime Minister Victor Ponta, with whom he must now work in what could be a fraught cohabitation.

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta and his conservative opponent Klaus Iohannis were neck-and-neck in a presidential runoff vote, exit polls showed Sunday.

Ponta, who had earlier been widely tipped to win the presidential race, was slightly ahead according to two exit polls which gave him 50.7 percent and 50.9 percent of the vote. Three other surveys put Iohannis narrowly in the lead.

Romanians voted on Sunday to choose their next president, with current Prime Minister Victor Ponta the overwhelming favorite to win.

The 42-year-old social democrat goes into the second round of votes with 54 percent support, according to the latest opinion polls, clearly ahead of his conservative opponent, Klaus Iohannis.

Some 10,000 people protested in Romania on Saturday, accusing the government of limiting voting from citizens living abroad in last weekend's presidential polls.

Thousands of Romanians living abroad were allegedly unable to vote in the November 2 first-round presidential election due to an insufficient number of open polling stations in countries including France, Germany and Britain.