Multiple Languages - different urls?

[eluser]Kriesi[/eluser]
Hello everyone, I got a question concerning multi language sites and was not able to find the answer in existing threads.

My problem: I am creating a site that will be released with multiple languages. The customer wants to have the URLs search engine optimized which means I cannot simply append the language code in a segment, i need a completely different URL but i want the sites to be created by the same controllers.

for example I got an English page with URL:

http://www.mydomain.com/about_us/contact/

the German version should look like this:

http://www.mydomain.com/ueber_uns/kontakt/

is there a way that one controller can create those 2 URLs? Since the site will eventually be released with 5-7 languages and about 30-40 pages I would like to circumvent heavy rewrite rules in the htaccess file :/

Best regards
Christian