The exiled former leader of the Maldives vowed on Friday to run for president after the Supreme Court quashed his conviction, dealing a major blow to the ruling regime.

Mohamed Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected president, has urged the government to respect the top court's shock decision to quash the convictions of nine dissidents and order the release of those serving jail sentences.

Mr Nasheed was convicted in 2015 on a terrorism charge and sentenced to 13 years in jail.

In 2016 he was granted prison leave for medical treatment in London, where he secured political asylum.

On Friday he said the decision cleared the way for him to return to the Maldives, a south Asian atoll nation known as a honeymooners' paradise.

"I can contest and will contest," he told AFP from Colombo. "We must set up proper procedures for inclusive, free and fair elections with full international observation."