BEIRUT - Lebanon's President Michel Aoun signed a letter approving a landmark U.S.-brokered deal laying out his country’s maritime boundary with Israel on Thursday, its top negotiator told reporters.

Speaking from the presidential palace, Elias Bou Saab said it marked the beginning of a "new era" and that the letter would be submitted to U.S. officials at Lebanon's southernmost border point of Naqoura later on Thursday.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily; editing by John Stonestreet)