WASHINGTON - The world’s largest software maker Microsoft and the biggest mobile phone maker Nokia Wednesday announced a partnership that will enable Microsoft Office to run on Nokia phones.

The deal could be expanded in future to other software products. Bringing Microsoft Office to phones would only “start to scratch the surface”, said Kai Oistamo, executive vice president for Nokia Devices.

Last month, US firm Microsoft unveiled new details of its Office 2010 productivity tools, which will feature a free online programme to counter similar programmes already available from Google and other competitors. The final version of Office 2010 is due next year.

Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft’s business division, said the agreement represented “an important milestone” for both companies that could bring more software technology to the mobile phone industry.

Sales of Office software are a mainstay of Microsoft. The Office division has earned profits of over $9 billion in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2009, on sales of $14.3 billion.

Office will start being added to Finnish company Nokia’s E-series line of business “smart phones” in 2010 and could later be brought to other phones, Oistamo said.

Microsoft has said that Office 2010 documents have the ability to be displayed on a variety of mobile phones, expanding the company’s reach from the traditional PC market to the Internet and mobile devices.