SANTIAGO, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and her Argentine counterpart Cristina Fernandez signed a treaty on Friday to promote integration and cooperation between the two countries.

    The "Maipu Agreement" was signed during Fernandez's official visit to Chile. The treaty includes projects of building road and railway tunnels across their common border and possible free transit for citizens in the two countries.

    Bachelet said the agreement was the first of its kind between two Latin American countries and marked "a new era of cooperation."

    The treaty is an update of the Peace and Friendship Treaty signed 25 years ago to end territorial disputes between the two countries.

    Argentina and Chile were stopped from engaging in an armed conflict over control of the Lennox, Picton and Nueva islands in the Beagle Channel in 1978 by Vatican mediation.