Denmark has abandoned plans to rush through legislation to restrict the movement of foreign nationals with `tolerated stay` status who cannot be sent back to their countries, a government official said Friday.

Immigration Minister Birthe Roenn Hornbech had said Tuesday the government would pass an emergency law obliging such foreigners to report daily to police and spend their nights at the Sandholm refugee centre, north of Copenhagen.

`Only special circumstances, such as serious illness or hospitalisation of those with tolerated stay status or their kin, will be allowed an exemption,` said Hornbech, who is also responsible for refugee issues.

The move prompted an outcry from the left-wing opposition, and an official from Hornbech`s ministry said Friday it had been decided to drop the emergency procedure `because time is needed for debate.`

`It will be debated on first reading on November 21 and should be adopted before Christmas,` he added.

Eighteen foreigners in Denmark who have been convicted of serious crimes, or who are subject to deportation but cannot be expelled, currently have tolerated stay status.

They must report to police every week. Prohibited from working or drawing social security benefits, they nevertheless can live on their own or with their families.

Plans for the new legislation followed a report in the Danish newspaper BT on Sunday that a Tunisian refugee awaiting trial on suspicion of plotting to kill Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard had been living just 10 minutes away from him.

Westergaard drew a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban -- one of a series published in September 2005 in a Danish newspaper that triggered outrage among Muslims worldwide.