Posted: Thu, Feb 26, 2004, 10:42 AM ET (1542 GMT)
European officials said late Wednesday that the United States and the European Union have nearly finalized an agreement on cooperation between the GPS and Galileo navigation systems, with all the major issues now resolved. Negotiators from the US and the EU met in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday to hammer out the remaining issues between the two on potential conflicts between the two systems. US officials had been concerned that Galileo signals could encroach on spectrum used by GPS military bands. The EU agreed to keep its signals far enough away from GPS, and also agreed to use the same signal format as GPS for its open signal. The US also agreed to not to exercise any veto power on any future Galileo technological developments. Both sides need to complete some legal and procedural issues before a final agreement is signed.

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•  Reuters article
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•  EU Observer article