NEW YORK, October 23, 2009 (AFP) - The National Basketball Association's referees will be back on the job in time for the start of the regular season after agreeing to a new contract on Friday.

Union brass and the NBA agreed to a two-year deal which ended a lockout and averted the prospect of the league having to use replacement officials on opening day.

The deal was put together earlier in the week and was approved in a vote Friday. Details of the vote were not released.

"We are pleased to reach this agreement," NBA commissioner David Stern said. "The negotiations extended further than either side had hoped, but when our regular season tips off on Tuesday we'll have the best referees in the world officiating our games."

The NBA has been using replacement officials during pre-season games who have come under much criticism. Stern said the regular refs will begin training camp this weekend and so they can be up to speed for Tuesday's season opening games.

The NBA rejected an offer from the referee's union before announcing September 18 they would be locking out the refs. The previous contract expired at the beginning of September.

The two sides met this week for talks and then Stern was brought in.

"It was always our intention to make a deal and our hope. I thought that perhaps the rhetoric had gotten a little bit too heated and it would be better for me to withdraw," Stern said.

"But it was requested by the other side that I return and that they were coming in to make a deal and they asked me to be there, and I thought I owed them out of my respect to them to honor that request."