DUBAI - An APPEALS court in Dubai on Tuesday suspended three-month jail terms against two Britons convicted of having sex on the beach in the booming Gulf emirate.

Michelle Palmer, 37, and Vince Acors, 34, will now be deported from the country, their lawyer Hassan Matar said.

'The three-month prison term has been suspended,' an appeals court judge said, reading the verdict.

The two were convicted in October of having sex in a public place and drinking alcohol in a highly publicised case in the emirate, which despite its pro-Western outlook still adheres to certain strict Islamic rules and bans sex out of wedlock.

Palmer and Acors denied charges of having sex in public and committing public indecency, but admitted to being under the influence of alcohol when they were caught on Dubai's Jumeirah public beach in July.

In addition to the jail sentence and deportation, they were each fined 1,000 dirhams (S$409) for drinking alcohol. Both had remained free on bail during the trial.

'The verdict concerning their expulsion remains valid,' Mr Matar said. 'There are only a few routine procedures to complete for their departure.' Palmer was sacked from her job as a publishing executive in the UAE following the case, while Acors was visiting Dubai at the time.

The case turned the spotlight on the lifestyle of the 120,000-plus British residents of the UAE, around 100,000 of whom live in Dubai, a bustling city state which hosts hundreds of thousands of Western residents and tourists. -- AFP