Venezuela and Guyana will restore full diplomatic ties, and the ambassadors of the South American neighbors will return to their respective posts.

Caracas and Georgetown have also agreed to accept the United Nations' offer to mediate in their century-old conflict over the oil-rich Essequibo region, El Universal reported. The breakthrough came after a meeting between Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his Guyanese counterpart President David Granger on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

"As determined by [U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon], we will receive a special technical commission in the coming weeks ... to prepare an integral report on the circumstances and the situation of this conflict, this Venezuelan claim on the Guyanese Essequibo," Maduro announced.

The embattled Venezuelan leader said he already reversed his July decision to withdraw his ambassador after accusing Granger of being a "hostage of Exxon Mobil," a reference to a significant oil discovery the American company made recently in the Essequibo.

"We have agreed to name ambassadors," Maduro said, according to Reuters. "In the case of Venezuela, we will be returning our ambassador immediately to the Co-operative Republic of Guyana," he added in comments broadcast over state television.

Granger, for his part, continued to put the blame for the conflict squarely on Caracas, the Associated Press noted.

"All of the provocations come from the Venezuelans," the Guyanese president said in a video message. "There has not been any lack of conversation on our part."

Venezuela and Guyana have long been at odds over the oil-rich Essequibo, which an 1899 international tribunal ruling awarded to the then-British colony. For decades, Caracas has objected to that decision, and official maps continue to refer to the area as "in reclamation."

Nevertheless, Maduro said he was committed to improving Venezuela's ties with its neighbor to the east, El Universal said.

"We want brotherly relations," he noted. "I have told President Granger that Venezuela has never been and will never be an imperialist, pro-imperialist [or] pro-colonialist country."