MOSCOW, June 14 (Reuters) - Top Chinese grain trader COFCOis in talks about buying a shareholding in a grain exportterminal in the Russian port of Novorossiysk as part of itsexpansion in Europe, sources said on Friday.

COFCO is understood to be in talks about buying ashareholding of about 25% in the KSK deep water grain terminalin Novorossiysk, three sources said.

Talks are being held with the terminal owner, Russiancompany Deloports Ltd. Deloports declined comment.

The COFCO group in China was unavailable for immediatecomment. A COFCO International spokesman in Switzerland declinedto comment.

"Such a deal could give COFCO greater capability to exportRussian grain in large volumes to the big Middle Easternmarkets," one source said.

"Novorossiysk is especially important for wheat exports toEgypt."

COFCO has greatly expanded its European grain tradingpresence in past years, taking over Dutch trader Nidera in 2017and building up a major European trading hub.

(Reporting by Olga Popova and Gleb Stolyarov in Moscow andMichael Hogan in Hamburg, additional reporting by Gus Trompiz inParis; editing by David Evans) ((p.ivanova@thomsonreuters.com;))