Chilean human rights agreement signed

Negotiators in Chile have finalised attempts to determine the fate of some one-thousand people who disappeared in the period of military rule under General Augusto Pinochet.

Under the agreement, which was reached after ten months of discussions, the armed forces have given an undertaking to provide information on the whereabouts of those missing.

Officers who come forward will remain anonymous.

The Chilean president, Ricardo Lagos, has welcomed the agreement, describing it as a great step towards national reconciliation.

But some human rights groups say the only way to resolve what happened to their relatives is through the country's courts. The BBC correspondent in Santiago says the agreement is the latest attempt in Chile to deal with the legacy of military rule between 1973 and 1990t.

Members of the security forces were granted an amnesty for any human rights crimes committed during this period.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service