FRANCE announced a sweeping, hard-fought agreement on Saturday aimed at granting more autonomy to the South Pacific territory of New Caledonia, but stopping short of independence.

The agreement, hailed by President Emmanuel Macron as “historic,” still needs final approval in New Caledonia, a nickel-rich archipelago east of Australia and 10 time zones away from Paris.

The accord proposes the creation of a “state of Caledonia” within the French republic and the creation of a “Caledonian nationality” alongside French nationality.

It was reached after 10 days of negotiations between representatives of the central government and those on both sides of the independence question.

The talks followed deadly rioting last year prompted by proposed changes to electoral rules that pro-independence groups said would marginalise indigenous voters.

The accord will help “us get out of the spiral of violence,” said Emmanuel Tjibaou, a Kanak lawmaker who took part in the talks, as he and other negotiators announced the accord on Saturday evening in the Elysee presidential palace in Paris.

He described a “difficult path” ahead but one that would allow Kanaks and other Caledonians to move forward together as “us,” instead of divided.

France colonised the Pacific archipelago in the 1850s, and it became an overseas territory after World War II, with French citizenship granted to all Kanaks in 1957.