Environmentalists had feared that the wide bay framed by mountains and skyscrapers would be reduced to a mere river over the next decade as government land reclamation plans soaked up its waters.

"The government's plan was to fill in the harbour and this judgement means that the harbour will survive," said Winston Chu, chairman of the Society for the Protection of the Harbour.

Hong Kong high court judge Justice Carlye Chu ruled Tuesday that plans to reclaim 26 hectares of land along the Wanchai waterfront were "excessive" and ordered that planned reclamation be subject to more stringent assessment.

Reclamation should only go ahead if there was "an overriding and present need" for development that could not be met by a "viable alternative" and should proceed with "minimum impairment" to the harbour, she ruled.

"Victoria Harbour is our precious and irreplacable natural heritage and no unnecessary reclamation work should take place," said Friends of the Earth campaigner Stephanie Mah.

Mah called on the government to review the need for all scheduled reclamation plans on both the Hong Kong and Kowloon sides of the famous harbour.

Although the court ruling was directed at a strip of shoreline in Hong Kong's Wanchai district, it will have an impact on government plans to develop some four billion US dollars worth of residential and commercial property around the mouth of the famous bay.

Victoria Harbour is a top tourist draw with 10 percent of all visitors to Hong Kong taking a ride on the Star Ferries which shuttle back and forth between Hong Kong and Kowloon, said Simon Clennell, Hong Kong Tourism Board spokesman.

The Star Ferry launched a new hour-long harbour tour this week which will "give people an opportunity to see the harbour in a more leisurely fashion," he added.

Clennell said the Hong Kong tourist board was keen to see better use made of Hong Kong's waterfront which lacks a promenade filled with restaurants and bars similar to the shore of Sydney Quay which has proved a big hit with tourists there.

The Society for the Protection of the Harbour is calling on the government to establish a harbour authority similar to the Sydney Harbour Development Authority to review waterfront development proposals in Hong Kong.

Over the last 100 years the harbour has halved in size as land reclamation to put up skyscrapers has whittled away at the waters, said the society's Winston Chu.

"Only half the harbour is left, so every square foot needs to be treasured," he said.

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