Top port executives signed documents earlier in the week that finalised a 20-year lease of APM Terminals' state-of-the art container facility in Portsmouth to the Virginia Port Authority (VPA), the Virginian-Pilot reported.

          "The agreement has been signed and executed, so we're done," said Jerry Bridges, the Port Authority's executive director.

          The signing of the papers made the nearly 300-page agreement released last week official. The culmination of months of intensive negotiations, the deal puts all of the major marine terminals in the port of Hampton Roads under one flag.