The European Union's envoy to Moscow said that Russia's ban on imports of raw vegetables from the EU was not justified and contradicted World Trade Organisation rules.

Russia enforced the ban after accusing Brussels of failing to give sufficient information about a deadly E.coli outbreak.

EU envoy Fernando Valenzuela repeated the EU's call for the lifting of the ban imposed and said he hoped the situation would be "resolved" within days.

Valenzuela expressed surprise that Russia would impose a ban, the breadth of which he said goes against WTO rules at a time when Moscow is pressing to join the world trade body.

"As the intention of Russia, which we support fully, is to join the WTO, possibly this year," he told a news conference.

"Russia should voluntarily be already implementing these (WTO) rules in full. There is no point... in waiting until the very last day to do that."

The European Commission said Moscow's move was disproportionate. The outbreak has killed at least 17 people and food poisoning appears to be spreading from Germany.

Speaking the week before Russia hosts EU leaders at a summit, Valenzuela said the ban was "not justified."

"There is no sufficient scientific basis to justify a ban, which is across the board for all EU-member states," he said.

Valenzuela added that the ban was hitting an important part of EU-Russian trade, and suggested it could undermine Russia's campaign to join the WTO, if it is not lifted soon.

"I think we have to look at this situation positively and hope that it will be resolved within a few days, and consequently it should not have any influential in the WTO negotiations."

European Union countries exported 594 million euros ($853 million) worth of vegetables to Russia last year while EU imports of vegetables from Russia were just 29 million euros, EU data show. It was not clear what proportion of that was raw.