The European Union has secured Russia's agreement to extend their partnership to its 10 incoming members, ending a bitter dispute ahead of the bloc's enlargement on May 1, a senior EU official in Moscow said Friday.

Russia will sign the new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) to cover the 10 mainly eastern European states on April 27, the deputy head of the European Commission's Moscow representative office, Vincent Piket, told reporters.

"That extension is not and has not been negotiable for us. We have reached an understanding with the Russian side that it is so," he said.

Contacted by AFP, the Russian foreign ministry said it could not immediately confirm the information.

The EU signed a PCA with Russia in December 1997, setting out the political, economic and trade frameworks of its relationship with the vast country for the next 10 years.

But the accord now needs to be adapted for the EU's enlargement to encompass eight former Soviet satellites -- the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia -- plus Cyprus and Malta.

Russia, for decades the dominant power in eastern Europe, has grudgingly accepted the enlargement as inevitable. But it has pressed for compensation for for the loss of preferential trade tariffs after its former Warsaw Pact partners join the EU.

"It has been positive negotiations, and as always in negotiations with reasonable partners you find reasonable solutions. That is what we will be able to produce and sign by the end of this month," said Piket.

The official signature of the extended agreement should take place in Luxembourg on April 27, with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov expected to attend, the EU official said.

The accord will take effect provisionally until it has been ratified by both sides, he added.