The American government says it won't deport illegal immigrants from Honduras and Nicaragua for a further year-and-a-half -- to give their homelands time to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Mitch.

The extension applies to an estimated one-hundred-and-fifty-thousand people from the two countries who are already in the United States.

The hurricane killed thousands and left at least one-million homeless when it struck Central America in October.

The temporary suspension of deportations until January, which the US announced then, has also applied to illegal immigrants from El Salvador and Guatemala.

Their reprieve is also being extended, but only for another sixty days - because their countries weren't so badly affected.