US and EU reach final accord in satellites row

The United States and the European Union have reached a final accord on resolving a transatlantic row over rival satellite positioning systems and will seal the deal at the US-EU summit this week in Ireland, officials from both sides said Monday.
The agreement, reached after months of intense negotiations, builds on a framework deal reached by the two sides in February in Brussels to ensure compatibility and non-interference between the US Global Positioning System (GPS) and Europe's Galileo project, the officials said.
"We have reached completion of a GPS-Galileo co-operation agreement," a US State Department official told reporters, calling the deal a "landmark" accord that would reap "profound benefits" for both the United States and Europe in the highly competitive satellite positioning market.
The official, who spoke with two other US officials and an official from the European Commission, said the deal would be formally signed on Saturday at the US-EU summit in Dromoland Castle in Ireland by US Secretary of State Colin Powell and EU commissioner Loyola de Palacio.
Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowan, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, will also sign the agreement, the official said.
The February outline had resolved all but "legal and procedural" details which were finally hammered out over this past weekend, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
"This is excellent news for both sides," the European Commission official said.
The United States has been watching the development of Galileo warily for the past two years, fearing it could compromise US and Nato military operations which rely on the GPS system for navigation and combatant location and might interfere with a classified Pentagon positioning system known as M-Code.
At one point, Washington suggested that the Galileo was an unnecessary rival to GPS that merely duplicated the US system.
Despite the US reservations, Europe forged ahead with the project and Galileo is set to be operational by 2008 with 30 satellites encircling the globe in medium orbit.
Late last year, the Europeans agreed to modify the modulation of Galileo signals intended for government use so they would not disrupt encrypted GPS signals to be used by the US military and Nato.
Under the terms of the agreement, the two sides agreed on key points including: -- a common signal structure for so-called "open" services, and a suitable signal structure for the Galileo Public Regulated Service (PRS).
-- a process allowing improvements, either jointly or individually, of the baseline signal structures in order to further improve performances.
-- confirmation of inter-operable time and standards to facilitate the joint use of GPS and Galileo.