* Paper says warring sides close to deal
* Telenor shares rise 4.2 percent after report
* Analysts say deal may still prove elusive
(Adds further details, Telenor's shares, analyst's comment)
MOSCOW, June 26 (Reuters) - Shares in Norway's Telenor jumped on Friday after a Russian newspaper reported it was close to agreeing with Russian partner the Alfa Group to merge their Russian and Ukrainian mobile telecom interests.
A merger deal would end a five-year boardroom war between Telenor and its Russian partners.
Shares in Telenor were up 4.7 percent at 0841 GMT, when the Oslo market index was up 2.32 percent. New York-listed Vimpelcom traded up 1.25 percent overnight. Its illiquid Moscow shares were untraded with the benchmark RTS index up 1.7 percent.
Vedomosti newspaper said they were near a deal to pool their joint holdings in Vimpelcom and Kyivstar into a U.S.-registered joint venture with equal 40-percent stakes.
"It is hard to determine whether the journalists have found new details of negotiations a few months ago or whether there has been real progress between Alfa and Telenor," VTB Capital analysts said.
"We see the news itself and the comments as one of the scenarios of the potential deal between Telenor and Alfa, although probably not the final one."
The paper cited two managers -- one from each side -- close to the conflict.
"As a principle, we never comment on rumours or speculation about this or other things," a Telenor spokesman said. "These kinds of rumours (about a deal with Alfa) have been going on for a long time and we never comment."
An Alfa spokesman also declined to comment. (Reporting by Anastasia Teterevleva and Melissa Akin in Moscow; Editing by Greg Mahlich)