Nicaragua's foreign minister Samuel Santos and ambassador Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez, Colombia's agent Julio London Paredes and former foreign affairs minister Guillermo Fernandez de Soto, from left to right, listen as the court delivered its ruling in the case of Nicaragua versus Colombia over ownership of a string of islands and cays off Nicaragua's Caribbean coast, at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Nov. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Nicaragua's foreign minister Samuel Santos and ambassador Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez, Colombia's agent Julio London Paredes and former foreign affairs minister Guillermo Fernandez de Soto, from left to right, listen as the court delivered its ruling in the case of Nicaragua versus Colombia over ownership of a string of islands and cays off Nicaragua's Caribbean coast, at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Nov. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Samuel Santos, minister of foreign affairs of Nicaragua, left, goes to shake hands with agent Julio Londono Paredes of Colombia, right, as the court delivered its ruling in the case of Nicaragua versus Colombia at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Nov. 19, 2012. The court is ruling on a long-running dispute between Nicaragua and Colombia over ownership of islands in the western Caribbean and the maritime border between the countries. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Samuel Santos, minister of foreign affairs of Nicaragua, left, shakes hands with agent Julio Londono Paredes of Colombia, right, as the court delivered its ruling in the case of Nicaragua versus Colombia over ownership of a string of islands and cays off Nicaragua's Caribbean coast, at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Nov. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) ? The International Court of Justice ruled Monday that a group of tiny islands in the western Caribbean belongs to Colombia, rejecting Nicaragua's claim in a long-running territorial dispute between the two Latin American nations.
Based on evidence presented to the judges by lawyers for both nations, "Colombia and not Nicaragua has sovereignty over the islands," the court's President Peter Tomka told delegations from both sides.
Nicaragua first went to the world court, the United Nations' highest judicial organ, in 2001 arguing that Colombia had no legal claim to the islands.
The court partially rejected that argument in 2007, saying a 1928 treaty between the two countries established that Colombia owned the English-speaking islands of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina.
Those volcanic islands, 720 kilometers (450 miles) from Colombia's coast and 110 kilometers (70 miles) from Nicaragua's mainland, are popular among tourists for their pristine white beaches and coral reefs.
In Monday's ruling, the court's 15 judges said that several other smaller islands and cays in the region also belong to Colombia and set the maritime borders based on Colombia's ownership of the islands.
The new borders give Colombia control of the waters and seabed immediately surrounding its islands and cays and give Nicaragua a large horseshoe-shaped area of the sea and seabed stretching from its mainland coast around the Colombian islands.
International Court of Justice rulings are final and legally binding.
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