Eight military topographers from China and Russia signed, through careful examination and verification, the result of a joint field mapping made in an once disputed border region on Friday.

The ceremony, held in the capital city of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, marked the official ending of the first joint mapping on the island region between China's Hulun Buir City and Russia's Chita region.

The 54.24-square-kilometer region, dubbed Bolshoi Island on the Russian side, is one of the three border places that had been in dispute between China and Russia for centuries.

Friday's achievement laid a solid basis for the two countries to demarcate their borders in due course, said a local observer.

China and Russia signed an agreement earlier this year on the eastern sector of some 4,300-kilometer border, the longest land frontier in the world.
 
(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2005)