UPDATE 1-U.S. trade rep says hopes Russia will lift meat ban

* Hopes Russian ban will be lifted as soon as possible

* Says meat and pork issue related to WTO progress

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By Toni Vorobyova

ST PETERSBURG, Russia, June 5 (Reuters) - The United States is hopeful Russia will soon lift a ban on its meat products, a step that would signal progress towards Moscow's ambitions to join the WTO, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said on Friday.

Russia is the largest export market for the $55 billion U.S. poultry industry and a major importer of pork and beef. It has banned meat imports from several U.S. states on concerns related to the H1N1 flu virus, commonly known as swine flu.

"We continue to hold out hope that Russia will move as quickly as possible to lift the ban," Kirk said after meetings with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Economy Minister Elvira Nabiullina.

Russia on Thursday added Utah to the list of U.S. states from which imports of live pigs and pork are banned. [ID:nL41029633]

A ban on imports of all types of meat is currently applied to Illinois, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as Canada's Ontario province, Mexico and some Central American and Caribbean states.

Kirk, visiting the St Petersburg Economic Forum, said Russian moves toward joining the World Trade Organisation would be helped by progress on the meat bans.

Russia has been trying for more than a decade to join the 153-member WTO and is the largest economy to remain outside the global trade watchdog. All WTO members must approve Russia's membership bid for the country to join.

"The meat and pork issue would be a wonderful manifestation of the progress," Kirk said.

Russia also applies a softer ban on imports of live pigs and raw pork besides Utah from the U.S. states of Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan and New York. The same ban applies to the Canadian province of Quebec.

Sergei Dankvert, head of Russian farm produce watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor, said this week he believed the bans from the U.S. states could soon be lifted. But on Wednesday he told Reuters the United States had not yet provided all the requested data.

In separate statements on Thursday, Rosselkhoznadzor also said it had banned pork from two Tyson Foods (TSN.N) slaughterhouses in Iowa. (Writing by Robin Paxton)