A court in northern Saudi Arabia has sentenced a Nigerian teenager to six months in jail and 240 lashes for trying to have sex with a camel, Al-Iqtissadiya newspaper reported Sunday.

The Tabuk court found the 17-year-old boy guilty of "having tried to have sexual relations with a camel," the paper said.

The camel's owner told the paper however that the young Nigerian "got into his farm and had sex" with the dromedary.

Camels are a firm favourite in the Gulf region, where racing them is a popular sport and good racers often earn huge sums.

"Beauty contests" for the long-lashed beasts are not unheard of.

Saudi Arabia applies a strict code of Islamic Sharia law, which prescribes corporal punishment for many disdemeanours.

The kingdom also imposes the death penalty on people found guilty of murder, rape, apostasy, armed robbery, drug trafficking and repeated drug offences.