LOS ANGELES, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. federal judge has halted the Bush administration's efforts to open 110,000 acres of federal land in Utah to oil and gas exploration, it was reported on Sunday.

In a ruling late Saturday, U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina said the danger of damaging the pristine land required further study before leases were awarded.

The leases to the parcels had been auctioned off on December 19 in a move that environmental groups complained was a last-minute gift to the energy industry before Bush left office, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The auction prompted environmentalists to file a lawsuit to block the proposed lease sales, according to the paper.

A coalition of seven groups sued for a temporary restraining order, and the ruling by Urbina means the checks written by energy companies for the land cannot be cashed, said the paper.

"Urbina's order postpones any sale until after he can hear arguments on the merits of the case, a delay that will potentially place the fate of the land into the hands of the incoming Obama administration," the paper noted.

The Bush administration announced the lease sales on election day. The original package of 360,000 acres included land that abutted popular national parks such as Arches and Canyonlands.

After the National Park Service objected, some of the leases were discarded, but environmentalists complained that the remaining parcels still included critical parts of Utah's red-rock country.
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