SessionFactory calling openSession throws noSuchMethoderror exception

I am using hibernate 3.2.5.GA, when invoking openSession of SessionFactory, it returns Session object of type org.hibernate.classic.Session :

public org.hibernate.classic.Session openSession() throws HibernateException;

I am also using Spring Batch 2.2.7.RELEASE, when setting SessionFacotry in HibernateItemReaderHelper, an exception is thrown when openSession in invoked because it expects Session of Type : org.hibernate.Session:

java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.hibernate.SessionFactory.openSession()Lorg/hibernate/classic/Session;

Anyone knows a solution to this?

P.S. I can not upgrade the Hibernate.