A British couple whose dream retirement home on Cyprus has become the subject of an international legal storm over property rights on the divided island have taken their case to the High Court.

David and Linda Orams, of Hove, bought an idyllic plot in northern Cyprus, hoping to spend much of their retirement in an area celebrated for its peace and climate.

They finished building their new home four years ago - complete with swimming pool and set on a 2,400-sq ft plot near Kyrenia, their QC, Cherie Booth, told Mr Justice Jack on Monday.

Ms Booth, wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair, told the court: "Essentially it was their dream retirement holiday home".

She added that they had also planned to allow friends to use it while keeping their family home in Hove.

Mr Orams, who had worked for the South Eastern Electricity Board, had ploughed the bulk of his retirement savings into the purchase, spending around £210,000 in total.

But the couple's "nightmare" journey through the legal system began at dusk one day, when Mrs Orams was approached by "two strangers".

They presented her with documents in Greek which initiated the legal feud over rights to land possession.

Ms Booth said the Orams had become "unwittingly caught up" in the aftermath of a 40-year-old conflict between the Greek and Turkish communities on the divided island - with bitterness exacerbated by the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974.

Their misfortune was to have acquired a plot that once belonged to Meletios Apostolides, a Greek Cypriot driven out by the Turkish invasion and now laying claim to the Orams' home. He wants the Orams' villa demolished and the land restored to him.

Since 2001 there has been a building boom, particularly around the resort of Kyrenia, where villas and apartments have been snapped up by hundreds of Britons.

But the problem is that Kyrenia is in the "unrecognised" state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), north of the Green Line patrolled by the UN.

In this territory, Britons tempted by the area's beauty already comprise the majority of a growing ex-pat population of 10,000.

However, Greek Cypriots in the south of the island take a dim view of their legal rights, and the three-day High Court dispute will focus on that key issue.

A Greek court has already decided in Mr Apostolides' favour but the verdict was unenforceable on TRNC soil, so he is bringing his case to London in order to make a claim against the Orams' assets in Britain.

The case reached London's High Court as the couple appealed the Nicosia courts' decisions, which Mr Apostolides' lawyers claim are now enforceable in the UK under European Community law. The case continues.