U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday there had been an agreement in principle with Switzerland over a tax case involving Swiss bank UBS .

There has been agreement reached in the litigation that just was just reported to the court in Florida, that confirms there has been an understanding between the Swiss government and our government with the ongoing litigation concerning UBS, Clinton said before a meeting with Switzerland's foreign minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey.

Asked if there were outstanding issues in the case, Clinton said the agreement had been reached in principle and did not elaborate.

Clinton and Calmy-Rey said they were pleased with the outcome and Clinton said the two governments had worked hard to reach an agreement on the tax dispute.

A U.S. Justice Department attorney said in Florida the U.S. government and UBS had reached agreement in principle on the major issues in their tax evasion case.

U.S. authorities are trying to force UBS to disclose the identity of as many as 52,000 U.S. holders of secret Swiss accounts suspected of dodging taxes.

(Reporting by Sue Pleming and Deborah Charles; Editing by Bill Trott)