HELENA (AP) -- The Montana State Prison has met the requirements for improving inmate medical care contained in an agreement settling a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union after the 1991 prison riot.

U.S. Magistrate Leif Erickson on Oct. 17 dismissed a major portion of the lawsuit, dealing with medical and dental care and mental health services.

''With dismissal of the medical complaints, we have reached a significant milestone in our efforts to create a comprehensive and effective system of health care at the prison,'' Corrections Director Bill Slaughter said. ''We did these things because it's the right thing to do, not just because of the lawsuit.''

The state and ACLU remain at odds over whether requirements for other prison operations -- such as level of supervision, staff training and facility maintenance -- are being met. An ACLU spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

The 1994 settlement agreement called for hiring a full-time doctor and a part-time psychiatrist and hiring more nurses. It also called for medical screening of all incoming inmates and timely referrals to outside specialists, and dealt with dispensing of over-the-counter medications, eye care, annual physicals for older inmates, dental care and mental health care.

Impartial experts were appointed to periodically visit the prison to monitor the state's progress in complying with the agreement.

Following the latest review of medical care at the prison, the state and the ACLU agreed to end court monitoring of the medical provisions in the agreement.

''I want to commend all of the staff in the infirmary, particularly Health Care Bureau Chief Kathy Redfern, for their diligence over a decade of hard work to gain compliance with the standards set for this in this settlement,'' said Warden Mike Mahoney.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit after the 1991 prison riot that led to the murder of five inmates in protective custody.

During the riot, inmates prepared a list of demands they wanted the news media to see. They sought investigations into the quality and availability of food and medical care, lack of exercise, use of restraints and discrimination against American Indian inmates.