UNITED NATIONS (AFP) -- UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday hailed Nigeria's upcoming transfer of authority over the potentially oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon as a model for negotiated settlements of border disputes.

The handover of the disputed territory is scheduled for next Thursday in implementation of a 2002 ruling of the International Court of Justice and an accord signed by Nigeria and Cameroon in 2006 during UN-brokered talks in the New York suburb of Manhasset.
""For the United Nations, this will be a landmark event, culminating in the peaceful resolution of a potentially dangerous boundary dispute through respect for international law and good-neighborly cooperation,"" Ban said in a statement.
""It is an example that should serve as a model for the negotiated settlement of border disputes elsewhere,"" he added.
The statement said that, as a facilitator of the 2006 so-called Greentree Agreement, Ban planned to send a senior official to lead his delegation at the transfer ceremony.
The 2002 ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague awarded the disputed territory to Cameroon, ending a drawn-out legal battle.
A 1,000-square-kilometer (386-square-mile) patch of coastal swamp jutting out into the North Atlantic, Bakassi is believed to contain considerable oil and gas reserves as well as rich fishing grounds.