OSLO (AFP) - A Norwegian administrative court said a ban on policewomen wearing the hijab was illegal, but the government rejected the non-binding opinion and reiterated its refusal to allow officers to don the Islamic headscarf.

• Veils may soon be forbidden in Swedish schools
• Police chief sent to jail for sex crimes in Sweden

The Norwegian Equality Tribunal said the ban ran counter to the country's freedom of religion and anti-discrimination laws by depriving a whole category of women from access to the police profession.

"The official objective is for the police to mirror Norwegian society as a whole," the tribunal wrote in its ruling.

"The society is multi-cultural and diverse, and the police should also illustrate this diversity, precisely to allow it to maintain trust at large" among the population, it added.

After a Muslim woman said she wanted to become a police officer but did not want to remove her hijab, Norway's centre-left government last year initially approved a police decision to allow its female officers to wear the headscarf.

However, the ruling coalition quickly back-tracked after the decision sparked outrage and charges from the largest member of the opposition, the far-right Progress Party, that it was allowing the "gradual Islamisation" of the country.

The main police union also said at the time it was against the plan, calling for the police uniform to remain neutral.

"The Islamic headscarf will certainly weaken the uniform's neutrality to a certain extent," head of the tribunal Trude Margrethe Haugli conceded Friday.

"But this is a small sacrifice for ensuring that principles of equality and freedom of religion are upheld," she told AFP.

The justice ministry, which is in charge of police matters, however said Friday it would not change its position on the issue, reiterating that police uniforms needed to remain neutral.

"The justice ministry's point of view has not changed," it said in a statement.

"It is out of the question to change the rules regarding the uniform," it added.