Russia and Norway on Tuesday announced they had agreed on a new demarcation of a disputed zone - measuring more than 155,000 square kilometres - between the Spitzbergen archipelago and Novaya Zemlya, DPA reported.
"This is a historic day. We have reached a breakthrough in the main outstanding issue between Russia and Norway," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said at a joint news conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The agreement ended some 40 years of dispute between the two countries on the demarcation.
"We are neighbours and want to cooperate," Medvedev said.
According to a 1978 Grey Zone Agreement, the two countries can use the area for fishing. Stoltenberg said their earlier cooperation had helped tackle illegal fishing.
Interest in the area is high, not the least because the Arctic is believed to have large gas and oil reserves.
Some outstanding details need to be hammered out but an agreement was to be signed by the foreign ministers of both countries before Medvedev was later Tuesday set to travel to neighbouring Denmark.
The Russian head of state arrived in Oslo on Monday.
The two leaders held bilateral talks earlier Tuesday, and touched on human rights as well as European security, energy, fisheries and other issues.
The two countries were also close to agreement on easing travel in their northern border regions.
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