DUBAI (AFP)

A Norwegian woman in a rape case in Dubai said Monday she was pardoned and allowed to fly home after having been convicted of extramarital sex in the Muslim emirate.

"I was told that I've been pardoned," Marte Dalelv, 24, told reporters outside a Dubai court, adding that her passport had been returned and she would leave the Gulf state "as soon as possible".

In Oslo, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide also said that Dalelv was being allowed to leave the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a member.