President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair signed a treaty to allow trade in defense products without individual export licenses, US and British officials said Thursday.
The Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty will address what was reportedly a significant disagreement between the two allies by making it easier to export equipment bought by Britain.
It allows the export of certain US military equipment to the British government and private companies without an export license or other predetermined authorization.
Similarly, the British government will not require a license for exporting military equipment to the United States.
"It is in our national security interest to support joint US-UK military and counter-terrorism operations in a timely way," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
The deal aims to "speed US-UK research and development and production of the next generation of interoperable defense technologies," he said.
The two sides hope to finalize implementation of the new arrangements by the end of the year, Downing Street said.
"They have agreed to improve transatlantic defense information sharing by reducing the barriers to exchange of defense goods, services and information between the US and UK," a statement from Blair's office said.
Blair himself said he was "delighted" with the agreement.
"Achieving this agreement has become more important than ever before," he said in a statement on the Downing Street website.
"At a time when British and American forces continue to work closely in defense and security operations around the world, both governments believe we must continue enhancing our ability to cooperate together."
Britain is Washington's main ally in Iraq and is also fighting alongside the US as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
Last year, the United States reportedly approved 8,500 British-related export licenses for defense products.
The agreement is also likely to lead to faster sharing of classified information and simplify technology-sharing arrangements.
It comes amid a rumbling row over the British government's highly controversial decision to halt an investigation into a slush fund allegedly set up by arms firm BAE Systems to support 1980s arms deals with Saudi Arabia.
