Britain and Spain have settled a long-running dispute over Gibraltar that blocked the European Union from ratifying some international conventions, including treaties on aviation and on children, Britain said on Tuesday.

Britain said the agreement would open the way for the EU to ratify the 1996 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and the 2001 Cape Town Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment, which is important to the aviation industry.

"I am delighted that, with the agreement of the government of Gibraltar and in the spirit of ongoing cooperation, we have now concluded a set of arrangements with Spain which will allow the EU to move ahead and ratify all such instruments," Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in a statement to parliament.