Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) chief James Mapesa said the fee would rise from the current $375 to visit the rare apes for one hour to $500 effective July 1, following a similar move by Rwanda.

"This fee will be the standard fee in the region," he told a Kampala news conderence, adding that the third country where the gorillas are found, the Democratic Republic of Congo, would adopt the same price structure.

"Uniform pricing for gorilla tourism will help to strengthen the already existing collaborative management arrangements between the three countries especially in the areas of research, monitoring, eco-tourism and community based conservation," Mapesa said.

The three governments have also agreed to share revenue from tourist visits to gorilla groups that roam between the nations, oblivious to political boundaries that exist on maps.

One such population, the "Nyakagezi group," had trundled out of the park in 2004, apparently unconcerned by the political border between Uganda and Rwanda that exists on human maps.

Mountain gorillas, the species made famous by the late US naturalist Dian Fossey, are found in the wild only in the high-elevation forests that straddle Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC.

Tourists generally avoid the DRC because of insecurity but Uganda and Rwanda have competed for years as a gorilla-watching destinations for high-end foreign tourists, with each claiming to be the best place to see them.

Uganda is believed to host about half of the world's remaining 700 mountain gorillas, whose numbers have been on the decline due to conflict, poaching, illegal trade and habitat destruction.

In Uganda, mountain gorilla tracking accounts for 49 percent of UWA's foreign earnings while the tourism industry is the country's biggest single foreign exchange earner.

AFP