Prosecutors have urged an Islamic (Sharia) court in northern Nigeria to uphold a ruling convicting a woman of adultery and sentencing her to death by stoning. 

The appellate court in Sokoto state Monday adjourned until March 25, when its decision on the woman's appeal is to be announced. 

A lower Islamic court in Sokoto state handed down the sentence last October after finding the Safiya Husaini guilty of giving birth to a child out of wedlock. 

The woman first said she was raped but later recanted and said the child was fathered by her husband, whom, she says, she had divorced. 

The death sentence has provoked international protests and concern about the state of human rights in Nigeria. 

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian, has previously indicated he was confident that the woman's appeal would be successful. 

The French news agency AFP also quoted Sokoto state officials as saying it was likely the court would overturn the sentence. 

The case is the first in which a woman was sentenced to death by stoning since 12 Nigerian states re-introduced strict Islamic law over the past two years. 

Some information for this report provided by AFP and AP.

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