Geneva  - Exit, a Swiss association for assisted suicide, has signed a deal with the authorities regulating its activities, in the first move of its kind, an official said Friday.

The document was initialed last Tuesday but was only announced Friday by the public prosecutor of canton Zurich.

Each year about 200 people seek assistance in committing suicide through programmes in Zurich, a third of them through Exit. Another major association, Dignitas, has not signed a deal with the authorities.

Exit said the paperwork does not change how it operates, only formalizes its activities, and that it signed the agreement voluntarily.

It believes the document ensures the "right to a dignified death" and "self-determination," two principles key to the idea behind assisted suicide.

Each candidate for suicide must be completely willing to go through with the fatal move and must suffer due to illness, accident or disability. The candidate must be tested and witnesses present at the time, with all steps along the way documented for the authorities.

The organization doing the deed also cannot seek to turn a profit.

Switzerland's laws on assisted suicide are still being worked out- though it is not per se illegal, unlike actively killing someone - with proposals for regulation or banning the practice altogether likely to come before the executive Federal Council later this year.(dpa)

Foreigners are also allowed to use the Swiss associations if they meet the criteria and want assistance in ending their own lives, though some clinics prefer to only deal with residents of Switzerland.