The two countries signed a land border agreement in 1999, but it took them nine years to demarcate the 840-mile (1,350-kilometer) frontier.

The demarcation is "an event of great historic significance in Vietnam-China relations," Vietnam News Agency quoted a joint statement issued Wednesday at the end of their four-day meeting in Hanoi as saying.

The two sides, represented by Vietnamese Vice Foreign Minister Vu Dung and his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei, pledged to build a border of "peace, friendship and long-term stability," it said.

China backed the Vietnamese communists during the Vietnam War, but sent troops to invade Vietnam in early 1979 for ousting Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, which was backed by Beijing.

The two countries normalized relations in 1991 and have since maintained annual high-level visits.

The two sides, however, did not resolve their hot dispute over the Spratlys islands, the largely uninhabited islands and surrounding waters are believed to have large oil and natural gas reserves. They straddle busy sea lanes and are rich fishing grounds.

Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei also claim sovereignty over all or some of the Spratlys.

The dispute sparked rare anti-China street protest in Vietnam late last year.

The Associated Press - January 1, 2009

China, Vietnam finish border demarcation

BEIJING - China and Vietnam have finished demarcation of their long-disputed land border, in a move of "historical significance" that the two sides hope will lead to greater economic and trade links, state media said on Thursday. The year-long demarcation was completed shortly before a midnight Wednesday deadline, following eight years of surveys and negotiations, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Dawei and his Vietnamese counterpart Vu Dung reached an agreement on the remaining issues related to the border survey during talks on Wednesday in Vietnam, the agency said.

"The completion of the land border demarcation along the entire length of the China-Vietnam land border is a major event of historical significance in their relations," the two sides said in a joint statement issued after the talks.

"It will bring new opportunities to the respective development of each country and is of particular importance to create conditions for border provinces in the two countries to expand cooperation, develop economy and strengthen friendly exchanges," the agency quoted the statement as saying.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung was quoted by state media as saying that the demarcation would build a common border of peace and friendship.

The two nations have erected 2,333 markers along the border over the past year after removing more than 500,000 landmines since the early 1990s, it said.

They fought a brief but violent border war in 1979 and diplomatic ties were interrupted until 1991. But economic and diplomatic ties have gradually improved over the past decade between the communist-ruled neighbours.

Armed skirmishes have broken out between them as recently as 1988, when they fought a brief naval battle over the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, whose surrounding waters might contain substantial oil deposits.

Last year public protests in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City broke out over ownership of the islands. It is thought by many that Vietnamese blogger Nguyen Van Hai, who went by the name Dieu Cay, was jailed for his blogging about the issue, though he was charged with tax evasion.

Relations were also tested when Chinese websites outlined a supposed plan for a large-scale invasion of Vietnam by China. Though obviously fakes, Hanoi was aggrieved that Beijing had allowed them to stay online, despite the usually strict internet censorship in the country.

Bilateral trade increased to more than 15 billion dollars in 2007 and was expected to hit 21 billion dollars in 2008.

Deutsche Presse Agentur - January 1, 2009