Hillary Clinton, Lazio agree to ban `soft-money' advertising.(Chicago Tribune)

NEW YORK _ After days of wrangling over the details, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rep. Rick Lazio have agreed to a ban on "soft-money" advertising in their high-visibility contest for the U.S. Senate.

If the agreement, expected to go into effect this week, holds up, Lazio and Clinton will continue to run television ads paid for by their campaign committees, but state and national party organizations will pull their advertising.

Those ads sponsored by the state and national parties are funded by unrestricted, "soft money" contributions that are supposed to be used for issue advertising but often amount to thinly veiled commercials for a candidate.

In what could be a major loophole in the agreement, the …