PRETORIA (AFP) - A South African court on Thursday cleared sprinter Oscar Pistorius for international travel, easing stringent bail conditions imposed on him for killing his girlfriend on Valentine's Day.

"I find that the magistrate's decision not to grant the appellant his passport to travel abroad was wrong," Judge Bert Bam told the High Court in Pretoria.

The 26-year-old's passport must be handed to his attorney and the "applicant be allowed to use his passport outside South Africa", said the judge.

Pistorius was also given the go-ahead to return to his Pretoria home where he shot dead Reeva Steenkamp, in what he claims was an accidental shooting but which the state argues was premeditated murder.

The double amputee champion Paralympian was contesting his strict conditions of his one million rand (S$134,000) release on bail ahead of his return to court in June.