The two sides said they hope to clear up final details of an accord on Europe's planned Galileo satellite system in time for an EU-US summit in Ireland in June, to be attended by US President George W. Bush.

The agreement on all but a few "legal and procedural" issues was struck Wednesday after two days of talks, following previous negotiating rounds in the Netherlands and Washington which had failed to make headway.

"All in all we have achieved what was always our objective, a win-win outcome. We still have some details to work out but the major principles ... are now in place," said senior US official Ralph Braibanti.

EU commissioner Loyola de Palacio said: "This is another very important step for the Galileo project, which recognises both sides as equal partners and creates the optimal conditions for the development of the European system.

"This agreement will allow all users to use in a complementary way both systems with the same receiver: it creates indeed the world standard of radio-navigation by satellite," she added.

The US offer came after the Europeans agreed late last year 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.

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.

At one point, Washington suggested that the Galileo was an unnecessary rival to GPS that merely duplicated the US system.

But Europe has forged ahead with the project and Galileo is set to be operational by 2008 with 30 satellites encircling the globe in medium orbit.

EU official Heinz Hilbrecht, a director at the European Commission, added that: "Our objective is to have everything ready for the EU-US summit" scheduled to be held on June 25-26 in Ireland.

According to the joint statement, 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 interoperable time and standards to facilitate the joint use of GPS and Galileo.

Braibanti added that the accord was a welcome example of US-European cooperation, at a time when differences ranging from Iraq to an ongoing series of trade spats have soured the transatlantic mood.

"We've succeeded in converting issues that would have driven a wedge between the US and Europe into a situation where satellite navigation now clearly appears to be an area that is going to clearly add to the strengthen of the transatlantic partnership," he said.

Earlier this month the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, shortlisted three groups as possible operators of the Galileo system.

Consortiums led by Eutelsat, Inmarsat/EADS/Thales and Alcatel Space/Vinci will go into a final process of competitive negotiation to win the contract, it said.

SPACE.WIRE