Dog owners in Amsterdam are angry after the city legalised public sex in one of the city's most famous parks.

Councillors agreed that heterosexual and gay couples could have sex in the Vondelpark which has ten million visitors a year.

But they promised to clampdown on dog owners who let their pets walk in the park without a lead.

One dog owner protested: "As long as the park has existed, we've been allowed to let our dogs run freely. It's outrageous that we will be punished from now on but public sex won't."

A spokesman for the council which runs the southern part of Amsterdam said: "When the dogs are not kept on a leash they pee on whatever they see and they cause a lot of nuisance for other visitors."

Alderman Paul Van Grieken defended the decision to allow public sex in the park from September.

"Why should we oppose a rule on something you can't oppose a rule on. Moreover it isn't a nuisance for the other visitors and gives a lot of pleasure to a certain group of people," he said.

"There still are rules," he added. "They must take their garbage with them afterwards and never have intercourse near the playground. The sex must be limited to the evening hours and night."