The double taxation waiver between Malta and the US is in its final stages and awaiting ratification by the US Senate, the US Embassy's chargé d'affaires Jason Davis said yesterday.

The double taxation waiver was signed last August between Finance Minister Tonio Fenech and then US ambassador Molly Bordonaro. Before coming into force, it will have to be ratified by the US Senate.

Mr Davis, speaking at the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the army and the US Coast Guard at the maritime squadron at Haywharf, said the US was committed to stepping up its cooperation and there were significant areas of bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

Since the embassy began its permanent refugee resettlement programme in May, over 260 refugees have been resettled with another 500 expected to benefit by the end of this year.

At Haywharf yesterday, Brigadier Carmel Vassallo described the memorandum signed with US Coast Guard Vice Admiral Robert Papp as "historic". Yet he also described it as a "formality" because cooperation between the two countries has existed for the past 15 years.

This week, a delegation from the US Coast Guard visited Malta to update and modernise the army's search and rescue software.

The upgrading, together with other training and equipment, is worth over $160,000 in funds from the US European Command.

The new software, called Sarops, will soon be used by the army in their normal maritime operations and helps the localisation of shipwrecks or debris, for example, in a large search and rescue area.

The equipment was used to help localise crash debris when an Air France flight plunged into the Atlantic after it took off from Brazil en route to Paris, Vice Admiral Papp said.