MOSCOW, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Russia and the European Union (EU) reached agreement on Tuesday to allow EU meat products to continue to enter the Russian market next year, averting an imminent ban by Russia.

    Russia had threatened to suspend meat trade with the EU citing food safety concerns over meat from Romania and Bulgaria, which become EU members on Jan. 1, 2007, and suggested signing bilateral agreements on meat imports with individual EU member countries.

    The two sides will soon sign a memorandum on further deliveries of EU meat products from farms verified by Russian experts, Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev said after talks with EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou in Moscow.

    "The EU and Russia have high veterinarian standards, so we agreed that the banned meat from Bulgaria and Romania will not be supplied to the Russian market through other EU member countries,"Gordeyev was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

    While Russia agreed to continue meat imports from the EU next year, a Russian ban on meat imports from EU member Poland remains in place. Kyprianou said the issue was not discussed at Tuesday's talks but he hoped for a settlement soon.

    The ban on Polish meat led Poland to block the start of negotiations between the EU and Russia on a new partnership pact to replace the existing document, which expires next year.