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 paused its controversial project to open up its seabed for commercial-scale deep-sea mining. Oslo had planned to let companies apply to mine 280,000 sq km (108,000 sq miles) of its waters for precious metals - an area bigger than the size of the UK.

The Norwegian government’s plans to open up for mining on the sea floor have been shelved as part of a deal to get its budget through parliament.