BY TERENCE HUNT
 Associated Press

 WASHINGTON -- President Clinton and Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, in the
 twilight of their terms, met Friday for perhaps the last time and witnessed the
 signing of an agreement establishing U.S. and Mexican boundary lines in a
 potentially oil-rich area of the Gulf of Mexico.

 The accord, reached after two years of negotiations, was signed in the Roosevelt
 Room by Secretary of State Madeleine
 Albright and Mexican Foreign Minister Rosario Green as Clinton and Zedillo
 watched.

 The division gives Mexico 4,100 square miles of the deep-water area and the
 United States 2,536 square miles in an area known as the western gap of the Gulf
 of Mexico. The two countries also agreed to declare a 10-year moratorium on
 exploration and drilling in a 3.25-mile-wide buffer zone along the dividing line. That
 will allow time for the two countries to consult on how to divide potential resources
 in the strip.

 It was the 11th meeting between Clinton, who leaves office in January, and
 Zedillo, whose six-year term ends in December. In a gesture of friendship, Clinton
 and members of his Cabinet welcomed Zedillo and members of his Cabinet to a
 luncheon in the Family Dining Room, usually reserved for the private use of the
 president's family.

 ``I think President Zedillo has done a truly remarkable job,'' Clinton said later,
 standing alongside Zedillo in the Rose Garden on a warm afternoon. ``Mexico has
 had five years of growth, in excess of 5 percent a year, after the very difficult
 financial crisis in '94.''

 U.S.-Mexican relations have been troubled by disputes including drug trafficking,
 corruption and abuse of migrants trying to cross the border into the United States.
 But the two leaders made no public mention of these problems, leaving them to
 Cabinet ministers.

 Clinton refused to make a judgment on Mexico's July 2 presidential election.

 ``I think the Mexican people will vote and make their own decisions,'' Clinton said.
 ``It's interesting to observe. It's just like this election [in the United States]. I'm
 just an observer now, I'm not running for anything.''

 Zedillo said Mexico has a democracy that is supported by solid institutions.
 ``There is no reason to fear'' that the elections will change that, he said. He also
 brushed off questions about currency fluctuations.

 ``The peso,'' he said, ``is determined by market forces.''