Thailand has agreed to allow the reality television show "Survivor" to film its next series on a tropical island once used as a jail for political prisoners.

Officials said they were confident the programme would not pose any threat to the environment on Tarutao island, 1,000 kilometres south of Bangkok, which is now a nature preserve boasting wild buffaloes, boars, dolphins and dugong.

The approval came despite opposition from environmentalists who said the filming of the Hollywood movie The Beach on another island two years ago had caused coastal erosion.

In the programme, 16 contestants living in the island's rainforest have to survive a series of gruelling challenges, while voting each other off the programme.

Tarutao island is best known for its role during World War II, when political prisoners were exiled there and left to fend for themselves with periodic inspections from the mainland.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service