Enel calls on Russia to guarantee long-term profit

* No guarantee of long-term profit for Enel Russia power unit

* General director calls on state to guarantee profitability

* Says ongoing talks with the government are tough

MOSCOW, June 17 (Reuters) - The Russian unit of Enel (ENEI.MI) is not promising to make long-term profits for the Italian energy major, its general director said on Wednesday, calling on the state to make good on its profit guarantees.

The comment sets the stage for a possible stand-off between the government and foreign investors in the power sector such as Germany's E.ON EONG.DE and Finland's Fortum (FUM1V.HE), who showed a firm belief in the health of the Russian economy when they made their landmark acquisitions over the past two years.

"We are trying to keep profitability," Dominique Fache, the head of the Enel-controlled electricity maker OGK-5 (OGKE.MM), said at the Adam Smith CIS Coal Summit. Enel spent $4 billion on acquiring the firm last year.

"There are still no rules that provide for the return on investment," he added. "We came here to get return on our investment. We are capitalists."

European energy giants rushed to buy up Russian electricity companies for billions of dollars when the government privatized them last year and in 2007.

The state electricity monopoly that carried out the sales, Unified Energy System (UES), told them that electricity demand would continue to soar for many years into the future, supported by rising personal incomes and strong industrial growth.

The global head of Enel, Fulvio Conti, said last year that his firm had already invested 3.3 billion euros in Russia, and would pour in another 2.2 billion euros before 2012.

But the picture has changed since the onset of the economic crisis last fall.

Industrial output fell 17.1 percent in May, state statistics showed, and last week electricity consumption was more than 9 percent lower than a year ago, according to the watchdog that monitors it.

Fache, whose company committed to pump more than a billion dollars more into OGK-5 when it acquired it last year, noted that his company could not forecast future investment levels unless new regulations guarantee profit.

State officials, however, have insisted that investors like Enel stick to their commitments to pay for the sector's development, which suffers from outdated infrastructure in use since Soviet times.

Only the possibility of delaying investments, not cancelling them, has been publicly discussed.

"Negotiations are underway, and they are tough negotiations," Fache said. (Reporting by Alfred Kueppers; Writing by Simon Shuster; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)