Presidents of Nigeria and Cameroon signed an agreement on Monday, promised to solve their dispute oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula diplomatically.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo met his Cameroonian counterpart Paul Biya in Manhasset, New York at a meeting hosted by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

According to a communique released by the UN spokesman office, the summit meeting was held in a cordial and constructive atmosphere in the presence of the delegations of the two countries and of the representatives of four witness states.

Obasanjo and Biya have agreed on the modalities of the withdrawal from the Bakassi Peninsula in accordance with the judgement of the International Court of Justice, which has confirmed the sovereignty of Cameroon over the peninsula and with due regard for the well-being of the populations.

The agreement means Nigeria agreed to turn over the disputed oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon.

After sign the agreement, Annan congratulated the heads of state of Cameroon and Nigeria for devising a new approach in the area of conflict resolution and emphasized that the United Nations has played an important role in the process through an extremely cost-effective mechanism.

He invited the Parties to continue to fulfill their obligations in good faith and pledged the continued support of the United Nations for the process.

"I am confident that the two Parties will continue to implement their agreements in a cooperative and constructive manner," he said, stressing the momentum achieved must be sustained.

Annan also urged the international community to give its full support to Nigeria and Cameroon's efforts to implement Monday's agreement on the ground as soon as possible.

Actually, Annan has been closely involved with the issue, and played a serious role in the process. "Since Friday, the secretary- general and his staff have held a series of meetings with the delegations of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission," a UN spokesman said Saturday.

The UN-sponsored Mixed Commission was established to help solve the dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria over the ownership of the peninsula in the Gulf of Guinea, which almost brought the two countries to war in 1981.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in 2002 that sovereignty rights over certain of the areas extending 1,600 kilometers from Lake Chad to the Bakassi Peninsula should go to Cameroon, while other areas should go to Nigeria.

Nigeria was due to hand over the peninsula in September 2004 but failed to do so, citing "technical difficulties."

Source: Xinhua