Russia's sanitary watchdog has approved four more U.S. facilities for the export of poultry to Russia, leaving a ban in place for just five plants, Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement on Friday.

On January 1, Russia introduced new sanitary standards, banning the treatment of meat with chloride of a higher concentration than in drinking water. A difficult negotiating process between Russia and the United States began, while Russia was also negotiating poultry supplies with other states as well as trying to increase domestic production.

In June 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed to lift the ban.

On August 16, Russia lifted a ban on poultry imports from 68 U.S. plants whose production processes met Russian requirements. The U.S. side complained that 60 were merely cold-storage facilities and 19 of 27 processing plants were still barred from exports. After Thursday's move, 22 of 27 processing plants are approved for exports to Russia.

Earlier this week, Russia expressed fears that poultry exported to the country from the United States may contain salmonella after some 550 million eggs were recalled in the U.S that were distributed in 14 different states.

Russia asked the American Food and Drug Administration to submit a list of the farms that announced product recalls.

The U.S. Poultry and Egg Council (USAPEEC) assured that all poultry meat products exported to Russia contain no salmonella bacteria.

U.S. poultry accounted for almost 80% of poultry imports to Russia. The U.S. import quota amounts to 600,000 tons in 2010.

MOSCOW, August 27 (RIA Novosti)