In Chile many newspapers condemned the decision in special afternoon and evening editions after the ruling.

"A historic day": Isabel Allende, daughter of the former Chilean president

One of them, La Segunda in Santiago, says Chile should decide its own affairs. Emblazoned across its front page like a football result is the scoreline 3:2 - the narrow margin of the vote by the Law Lords.

The Santiago Times says reaction to the decision has once again highlighted the deep divisions in Chile between General Pinochet's supporters and those who suffered under his rule.

In Spain, the decision is warmly greeted by the main papers. El Pais says a new form of international justice has been born, and it would have been immoral to let General Pinochet go.

Diaro 16 says international justice has entered the 21st century. From now on, it adds, world leaders who commit crimes will have nowhere to hide.

Pinochet supporters in the Chilean capital Santiago burn a British flag in protest

The press in the UK is divided in its view of the ruling. The Daily Telegraph says Chile agreed democratically to give Pinochet an amnesty and if anyone should challenge that, it should be the Chileans.

The Guardian disagrees. Torture, it says, is not a head of state's duty but a crime, and should be prosecuted as such. The Guardian says the decision sounds a warning to all future dictators and retired leaders that they will not be able to travel freely abroad.

Alongside photographs of General Pinochet, several British papers have pictures of those who suffered during his rule.

The Independent's photograph is of a Chilean woman who lost her husband, two sons and daughters-in-law during the Pinochet years.

For her and countless others, it says, justice has been done.

Joan Hara, widow of Chilean folk singer Victor Hara: "Nothing can compensate for the loss"

The press in France is also far from unanimous over whether the ruling was the right one. The right-wing daily Le Figaro describes the decision as a political ruling, saying the Law Lords were "condemned to take a bad decision."

But the left-leaning daily Liberation says that whatever happens next Augusto Pinochet's old age has been "wrecked" for good. "It is already a form of justice to see the hallowed impunity of a cold-blooded dictator torn down," says Liberation.

In the United States, the New York Times says Britain must now extradite Mr Pinochet to Spain and resist the false argument that trying him would imperil Chile's democracy.

The conservative Wall Street Journal, in contrast, carries an editorial entitled "Betrayed in Britain", which argues that General Pinochet's so-called crime was saving his country from a Communist take-over orchestrated by the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro. The Law Lords' decision, its says, is a recipe for anarchy and arbitrariness, not justice.

In Belgium La Libre Belgique describes the verdict as "a courageous and historic" precedent.

Die Presse in Austria says in a front-page editorial that in a few years time no-one will be questioning the decision - instead they will be teaching it in schools as part of the syllabus.