SWITZERLAND - A dispute over how to plug a cantonal pension fund's deficit - which ended in fisticuffs - has been settled amicably.

Last year, Jean-Yves Gabbud from the Valais enterprise federation and Michel Perruchoud from the association of teachers and civil servants were invited by the canton's TV station Canal 9 to debate the Swiss state pension fund.

However, an argument broke out over how best to plug the over CHF100m  (€62m) deficit in the Valais teachers' pension fund which had been the subject of a government probe a few months earlier.

As the debate heated up, Gabbud threw a glass of water in Perruchoud's face. In the following scuffle the teacher's representative allegedly suffered bruises to his face and on his back. Both associations filed lawsuits.

Gabbud and Perruchoud issued a joint statement today saying that they had come to an amicable agreement on the case and they enclosed a photograph of themselves shaking hands.