BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - Argentina and Uruguay strike eco-deal over Finnish paper mill.

• Argentines lift Finnish paper mill roadblock

Argentina and Uruguay Wednesday agreed to a joint environmental monitoring program along the shared Uruguay River, ending a seven-year pollution controversy over a Finnish paper mill on the Uruguayan side.

"A chapter in hour history ends and a new era of cooperation begins," Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said at the signing ceremony in the presidential palace.

The agreement, which calls for setting up a joint-scientific committee in 30 days to begin the monitoring work, was welcomed by Uruguayan Foreign Minister Luis Almagro, who expressed "profound satisfaction" that both governments had overcome their differences.

Argentina hopes the accord will appease environmentalists who for three years have blocked a bridge linking Gualeguaychu to Fray Bentos, in Uruguay, where the UPM mill was built seven years ago over Argentina's objections that it would pollute the river.

Buenos Aires took its case to The International Court of Justice in the Hague, which in April ruled that Uruguay failed to duly inform its neighbor about the paper mill's construction, and called for a joint monitoring system along the Uruguay River basin.

The conflict had marred otherwise friendly relations between presidents Cristina Kirchner of Argentina and Jose Mujica of Uruguay.

The monitoring committee is to check for pollution in all farming, industrial and urban centers that spill their waste into the Uruguay river and its tributaries, starting with the UPM plant in Fray Bentos.