Madrid - Spain and Russia on Tuesday stressed the need to reach concrete results against the global financial crisis at the upcoming G20 summit in London.

Judicially binding agreements were needed, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said at a joint press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero during a state visit to Spain.

Zapatero called on the international community to reform the financial system "as soon as possible" to cope with the crisis, the scope of which he described as unprecedented.

The two leaders signed a declaration raising bilateral relations to the level of a "strategic partnership."

Agreements were also signed to step up cooperation in energy, rail transport, justice, tourism, and on the transit of Spanish troops through Russia to Afghanistan.

A permanent working group will be created to organize energy cooperation involving a wide range of activities, from prospecting and transport to possible support to private companies, in oil, gas, coal and green energy.

Zapatero said the agreement guaranteed Spanish companies better access to Russian energy reserves. Spain imports about a fifth of its oil from Russia.

Medvedev said the door had not yet been closed to the possibility of the Russian oil major Lukoil taking a stake in Spain's Repsol.

Spanish reports had presented the deal as having been abandoned, because of financing difficulties and Spanish fears over the independence of the country's energy sector.

Zapatero stressed the importance of Russia as a partner for the European Union and United States, pledging that Spain would invest heavily in those relations during its EU presidency in 2010. (dpa)