Rafael Estrella, the assembly's president and a Spanish Socialist lawmaker, said the move was significant amid increasing antiterrorism cooperation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the West since the Sept. 11 attacks on America.
"My feeling is that Russia is reconsidering its role in Europe, they are more assertive now, they are finding they are no longer the outsider and have a role to play in European security and they want to play it," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a NATO Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Ottawa.
The session resumes on Tuesday after a one-day break and will hear speeches by NATO Secretary-General George Robertson and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
Another official said the agreement was further confirmation "the issue of Russia eventually joining NATO is on the table."
Russia's parliament has backed Putin's support for the United States' right to retaliate for attacks on New York and Washington that killed more than 5,500 people. Putin has also this month softened his opposition to NATO's planned enlargement, something which had impeded efforts for closer ties with the 19-nation alliance.
The lawmakers' agreement will be signed by representatives from the upper and lower houses of Russia's parliament.
"One of the most important elements of this document is that we have managed to identify our areas of differences and we have gone a long way ... now we can discuss our differences on strategic concept of NATO," Estrella said, adding: "We are understanding what the other thinks and that is a big step."
The NATO assembly meets twice a year to discuss political, technical and security issues affecting the alliance.
Cooperation between the NATO assembly and Russia's parliament, began in 1991 when Russia became one of the 17 associate members. Associate countries can participate in debates, make amendments to resolutions but cannot vote.
Relations were halted in March 1999 when Russia's lower house of parliament, the Duma, suspended its ties with the assembly in protest against NATO's air operation in Kosovo against Yugoslavia.
But since February last year, after a settlement on Kosovo and the Russian-NATO relationship over the strengthening of security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic region, the parties resumed cooperation in the assembly.
The new pact lists areas of differences and cooperation between Russia and the NATO assembly. Among them are Russians' view that NATO continues to be a threatening alliance. They also oppose NATO actions in Yugoslavia which they say violated fundamental norms of international law and was a sign of NATO's willingness to use force unilaterally.
They also noted their opposition to further NATO enlargement to include the three former Soviet Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
