  We prove that an eulerian graph $G$ admits a decomposition into $k$ closed
trails of odd length if and only if and it contains at least $k$ pairwise
edge-disjoint odd circuits and $k\equiv |E(G)|\pmod{2}$. We conjecture that a
connected $2d$-regular graph of odd order with $d\ge 1$ admits a decomposition
into $d$ odd closed trails sharing a common vertex and verify the conjecture
for $d\le 3$. The case $d=3$ is crucial for determining the flow number of a
signed eulerian graph which is treated in a separate paper (arXiv:1408.1703v2).
The proof of our conjecture for $d=3$ is surprisingly difficult and calls for
the use of signed graphs as a convenient technical tool.
