The deal started in the US this month and will be rolled out to the rest of the world in the first quarter of 2005.

A spokeswoman for KPG UK said the firm would be unable to provide further details of the UK strategy for a fortnight.

It ends the speculation that the two firms would be working together, which began as soon as it was announced that Kodak was acquiring Heidelberg's digital printing divisions last year.

Products covered include the colour NexPress 2100 and the black and white Digimaster E125 and E150.

KPG will kick off the agreement by showing the NexPress 2100 on its stand at Graph Expo next week.

KPG has been building its presence in digital printing for some time. At Drupa it announced a deal with Canon to sell its CLC 1100 and 5100 colour digital presses.

At the show when asked whether the firm would sell the NexPress 2100 KPG chief executive Jeff Jacobson joked "It depends what margin they [Kodak] gives us on it." See earlier story here.

The Canon deal replaced an earlier deal with Xerox to sell the DocuColor range in the US, which was terminated last December.

Story by Barney Cox