The 13-member euro zone reported an external trade surplus of 7.4 billion euros (more than 9.6 billion U.S. dollars) in March this year, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU), said on Tuesday.

In its first estimate for the euro zone's trade balance with the rest of the world in March, the euro zone's seasonally adjusted exports increased by 1.2 percent as compared with the previous month, while imports were down 2.6 percent.

However, the whole 27-member EU (EU27) registered an external trade deficit of 11.1 billion euros, as compared with the deficit of 13.5 billion euros in March 2006. The trade bloc's seasonally adjusted exports in March were up 1.1 percent compared with the previous month, while imports decreased by 2.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the 27-member EU's trade with most of its major partners grew in the first two months this year. Notably, its exports to Russia grew 26 percent year-on-year, followed by an 18-percent increase in exports to South Korea.

The EU27's trade surplus with the United States stood at 10.7 billion euros in the first two months this year, down from 13.1 billion euros the same period last year.

Concerning the total trade of EU member states, the largest surplus was observed in Germany with 30.1 billion euros in January-February 2007, followed by the Netherlands with 6.3 billion euros.