BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) – Leaders from Quebec and Vermont reaffirmed cooperation between the two regions on the environment, the economy and security during a meeting Tuesday.

“The international border is not a line that divides us, but an opportunity to unite us,” Gov. James Douglas said in remarks before joining Quebec Premier Jean Charest on a tour of ECHO at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, an aquarium and science center on the Burlington waterfront.

The meeting was designed to review progress on a series of agreements signed last year between Vermont and Quebec to promote better working relationships between the state and province on tourism, transportation, security, the environment, energy and education.

But ranking high on Tuesday’s agenda was the joint effort to clean up Missisquoi Bay, a section of Lake Champlain shared by Vermont and Quebec that over the years has been plagued by sometimes toxic blooms of blue-green algae.

The bay has been a focus of efforts by Vermont and Quebec to reduce levels of phosphorous.

, a nutrient found in animal waste and other sources that has been blamed for many of the lake’s water quality problems. The deadline for reducing phosphorous to an appropriate level was recently moved up from 2016 to 2009, a target Douglas and Charest said was ambitious but realistic.

“Lake Champlain has taken up a lot of the respective time of our governments, as it should, frankly,” Charest said. “We are working diligently together on this issue, and moving very rapidly.”

Phosphorous from manure is among the sources of pollution in Lake Champlain, and Charest said Quebec had taken a “farm-by-farm” approach to educating local farmers about new regulations aimed at reducing potentially polluting agricultural run-off.

Douglas, meanwhile, said the Clean and Clear campaign – his catch phrase for a plan to clean up the state’s waters – was doing its part to reduce phosphorous in Lake Champlain. Some $14 million in state and federal funding has been devoted to the goal of having the lake and its tributaries meet federal water quality standards by 2009.

The governor acknowledged that it will take time to clean up the lake and Missisquoi Bay, and he said officials had to be “aggressive” to meet the deadline.

“It’s important to be aggressive,” said Douglas. “We have to show the people of Vermont, Quebec and New York that we’re serious about this.”

In an interview after the news conference, Patrick Berry, policy director for the Vermont Natural Resources Council, said the state would have to work more aggressively to bring farmers into compliance with federal standards and meet the clean-up goal.

“Vermont needs to find a way to help them come into compliance,” Berry said.

Douglas and Charest also spent some time outlining other areas in which cooperation between the two regions had increased.

The governor led a trade mission to Quebec, and provincial officials participated in the Vermont Business and Industry Expo earlier this year. Security agencies on both sides of the border exchange information and meet regularly, and Vermont and Quebec have also agreed to provide reciprocal enforcement of child support orders.

But Tuesday’s meeting wasn’t all diplomacy. Charest said he’d heard many French-sounding names during his visit, which prompted him to extend an invitation to those attending Tuesday’s meeting.

“I’m here to ask you to come back home,” said Charest, to much laughter from the audience.

AP-ES-08-03-04 1607EDT