A small leftwing environmentalist political party in Norway succeeded on Sunday in blocking plans to mine the sea bed at the bottom of the Arctic, by demanding the government scrap its first licensing round in return for support for the budget.

Norway has shelved plans to open a vast ocean area at the bottom of the Arctic for commercial-scale deep-sea mining.

Norway has suspended plans to start giving licences for deep-sea mining next year that had faced opposition from environment groups and international institutions, a party allied with the centre-left government said on Sunday.