UPDATE 2-Russia '08 inflation may hit 10 pct - FinMin

(Releads with finance minister comment)

By Simon Shuster and Yelena Fabrichnaya

MOSCOW, April 16 (Reuters) - Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin on Wednesday said inflation of 10 percent was possible in 2008, the first official acknowledgement that the government may struggle to keep consumer price growth within single digits.

Kudrin's comments came after official data showed Russia's consumer price index rose 5.6 percent from the start of the year to April 14, led by a surge in the price of some food products.

Russian news agencies quoted Kudrin, who is accompanying President Vladimir Putin on a trip to Libya, as saying his ministry's current forecast for 9.5 percent inflation could be increased.

"It was 9.5 percent and will probably be 10 percent," Interfax news agency quoted the finance minister as saying.

Inflation has become the main headache of the Russian government as the country enjoys its 10th year of economic boom. Consumer prices rose 11.9 percent in 2007, exceeding the government's target of around 8 percent by a wide margin.

Russia's consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.8 percent in the first 14 days of April, the state statistics office said. It rose 0.3 percent between April 8 and April 14 alone.

Russia's CPI rose 4.8 percent in the first three months of this year, bringing price growth from the beginning of the year to April 14 to 5.6 percent, the state statistics showed.