Two European chemical companies agreed to pay criminal fines totalling nearly 73 million dollars in a US probe into price fixing in the chemical industry, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

US officials said Belgian-based Solvay SA and the Netherlands' Akzo Nobel Chemicals International agreed to plead guilty to charges of participating in international price-fixing cartels in the chemicals industry.

The charges were the first in an antitrust investigation into the hydrogen peroxide and sodium perborates industries.

Akzo Nobel agreed to pay a 32 million-dollar criminal fine for its role in fixing prices in the hydrogen peroxide market, the DoJ said. Solvay meanwhile agreed to pay 40.8 million dollars for participating in price-fixing in both the hydrogen peroxide and sodium perborates markets.

The agreements were submitted to the US District Court in San Francisco and must be approved by a judge.

The companies were accused of conspiring with their competitors to fix prices dating back to 2000 for hydrogen peroxide, a bleaching agent with many industrial uses including as a disinfectant; and for sodium perborate, an oxidizing agent used mainly in detergents but also found in toothpaste, hair care products, antiseptics and in industrial processes.

The US giant Procter and Gamble was identified in court documents as a victim of price fixing for sodium perborates.

"Protecting consumers from international price-fixing cartels is the division's highest priority," said Thomas Barnett, head of the Justice Department's antitrust division. "These types of cartels are harmful to our economy and to millions of American consumers."

Officials said the probe is continuing.