Danish police illegally arrested 250 protesters during the global climate summit in Copenhagen last year, the city's district court ruled Thursday, ordering the police to pay compensation.

"The Copenhagen police have been sentenced to pay compensation for 250 illegal deprivations of liberty during the COP 15 (UN Climate Change Conference) in December 2009," the court said in a statement.

Out of the some 1,900 people taken into custody during the protests last December, 250 sued the police for wrongful arrests.

A group of 178 people arrested during a march on December 12 of some 100,000 protesters to the Bella Centre, where the conference was being held, were granted the highest compensation sum of 9,000 kroner (1,200 euros, 1,600 dollars) each.

They had been among 905 people taken into custody after a group of protesters dressed in black began throwing rocks at the police, and had their hands tied behind their backs and were forced to sit on the cold pavement for hours before being towed off to a temporary jail.

The court found that the police were right to arrest troublemakers but said there was was no proof the 178 plaintiffs were among them.

"The court found that the conditions of the deprivation of liberty were degrading and therefore violated the European Convention on Human Rights," it added.

The remaining 72 people found to have been wrongfully arrested between December 11 and 16 were granted 5,000 kroner each in compensation.

The ruling comes less than a week after a new international accord was reached in Cancun, Mexico on global warming.

The deal heartened environmentalists after the Copenhagen meeting's dismal failure to achieve a binding agreement on carbon dioxide emissions to replace the Kyoto Protocol which expires in December 2012.