Two sides in L.A.-Long Beach port strike agree to mediation

LOS ANGELES Dec 4 (Reuters) - Union and management negotiators have agreed to the intervention of a federal mediator in a bid to settle a week-old strike by clerical workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that has idled most of America's biggest container port complex.

The agreement to mediation, announced by Los Angeles Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa, came after an all-night bargaining session that a spokesman for the Harbor Employers Association, representing shippers and terminal operators, said had left the parties "still far apart."