by Elizabeth D. Wise Associated Press Writer

Brussels, Belgium (AP) April 21, 95 - The European Union and Canada have closed their dispute on fishing rights in the northwest Atlantic by signing a bilateral pact dividing turbot stocks, officials said Friday.

Canada's ambassador to the EU, Jacques Roy, signed the agreement minutes before midnight Thursday with the EU's executive Commission, they said.

"We're very pleased," said Canadian diplomat Elizabeth Mundell, one of the negotiators who met daily for more than six weeks to work out the deal.

"We are definitely happy," added EU Commission spokesman Marco Zatterin. "Finally they story is over, and we hope for a better future."

The signature starts the clock running on a 15-day deadline during which nations whose fleets fish the disputed waters off Newfoundland's Grand Banks must put observers on their vessels.

The deal requires strict conservation rules in a bid to protect the dwindling stocks of turbot, or Greenland halibut, in the area. Each boat will carry an independent observer, and most will be surveyed by satellite.

Zatterlin said the unlikely hour of the accord signing was due to EU reluctance to sign the deal before being assured that Canada would compensate the owner of a Spanish trawler it seized in international fishing grounds.

Canadian authorities seized the Estai off the Grand Banks March 9, claiming it was overfishing. Canada's attorney general stayed charges against the boat captain on Tuesday, and repaid a Canadian dlrs 500,000 (U.S.dlrs 365,000) bond set on the boat as well as Canadian dlrs 8,000 (U.S.dlrs 5,850) bail paid for the captain.

But it was not until Thursday that Ottawa gave written permission for a Spanish boat to sail into the Newfoundland harbour of St. John's and retrieve some 180 tons of fish confiscated from the Estai, Zatterin said.

EU governments had formally approved the agreement Monday through their ambassadors in Brussels.

Under the settlement, Canada will get 10,000 tons of the total 1995 turbot catch limit of 27,000 tons set by the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization, or NAFO.

The deal skirts the contentious issue of the EU's quota by allowing the Union's boats to catch a further 5,013 tons for the rest of this year - without stating how much turbot EU boats have already caught since January.

Mundell said the quota arrangements and conservation rules must be approved by other NAFO members. She said no NAFO meeting has yet been scheduled.

-- 210958 Apr Gmt