MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- Mexico and the United States signed an
                  agreement Wednesday to divide up an unclaimed area of the Gulf of Mexico
                  which lies beyond both countries' 200-mile territorial limits.

                  The agreement is expected to sort out potentially lucrative rights to offshore oil
                  exploration in an area in the center of the Gulf informally known as "the
                  doughnut hole."

                  But both countries agreed to a 10-year moratorium on drilling in the area to study
                  where any oil deposits might lie, in order to ensure both countries get an equal
                  chance to tap into them.

                  Under the agreement Mexico got about rights to about 60 percent of the
                  6,500-sq. mile (17,000 sq. km) area in the Gulf, and the United States 40
                  percent.

                  U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow called the agreement, signed at Mexico's
                  Foreign Relations Secretariat in Mexico City, "a historic moment in relations
                  between our two countries."

                  "The negotiations were always difficult, but the result was equitable for both
                  sides," Davidow said.

                  Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.