Anomoly with php extensions

Can somebody help me with a problem I am having with php extensions.
I am running Apache 2.2 and php5.2 on my local host for testing purposes.
My www. web server requires that all php5 pages are given the extension .php5 rather than just .php.
This means that with my present setup when I try to test my pages with the .php5 extension on the local host they do not run properly and simply display the entire php code. These same php5 pages will display properly if just given the extension .php, but that of course messes up all the links.
Is there some way I can configure the apache server to replicate the requirements of my web server to resolve this difficulty?

You could just add a mime type for .php

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

Thanks for that!!