Iceland grants citizenship to Bobby Fischer

REYKJAVIK, ICELAND, MARCH 22 (AGENCIES)

Iceland's parliament voted on Monday to grant citizenship to fugitive US chess star Bobby Fischer.

The legislation, passed with 40 lawmakers voting "aye" and two abstaining following a brief debate, became law immediately.

"I am very pleased with this, and I think that the dignity of the parliament has increased," Fischer's supporter Saemundur Palsson said.

He said Fischer, 62, would be informed of the vote tomorrow morning in Japan, where he has been detained awaiting deportation to the United States on a warrant for violating economic sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing a chess match there in 1992.

"I hope that he will stop cursing the Americans now. It has gotten him into so much trouble," Palsson said.