LEWISTON -- A new gaming compact between the state and leaders of the Nez Perce Tribe should clear the return of the Idaho Lottery games to more than a dozen northern communities.

Gov. Butch Otter and Nez Perce Tribal Chairman Samuel Penney signed a Class III gaming compact during a ceremony Wednesday. The agreement must also needs the signature of U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.

The compact allows the sale of Idaho Lottery games in Kooskia, Kamiah, Craigmont, Orofino and several other towns in the region.

Lottery games have been banned in those communities since 1994 when a federal judge ruled a formal compact was required to sell the games on tribal lands.

Otter says the deal represents the growing cooperation between the state and Nez Perce Tribe.