The Norwegian Government has imposed a cap on foreign funding of new mosques in a bid to restrict massive donations from Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries.

"It would be paradoxical and unnatural if we accepted money from sources in a country where there's no religious freedom," Norway's Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Store, told the Verdens Gang daily. He noted that "just wanting to establish a Christian community in Saudi Arabia is considered a crime".

Muslims, mostly of Pakistani, Somali and Iraqi origin, make up the largest religious minority in Norway after the predominant Lutheran Church.

In January, the Government warned it had the right to approve substantial foreign donations to religious communities. A giant mosque was recently barred from receiving Saudi funding in the northern city of Tromso, after newspaper reports linking the project to extremist groups.