The City of Brussels owns a dune on the outskirts of Ostend, which it is about to sell to Flanders for €61,000.

The 9,000m² plot of land in Middelkerke, looking out to the North Sea, must have been left to the city as a donation or legacy, said Mohamed Ouriaghli, the Brussels city councillor in charge of public properties.

He said the Flemish region's offer to buy the land was accepted "without hesitation" as it has no use to the City of Brussels and cannot be built upon.

"We do not have many properties outside the city. This dune was one of the exceptions," he said. The sale will be rubber-stamped by the city council on Monday.

Flanders wants the land back as part of a joint Franco-Flemish project to buy up privately owned parcels of land along the dunes from Dunkirk to Westende to protect local flora and fauna.

The dunes are part of the EU's Natura 2000 network of breeding and resting sites for rare and threatened species.