Economists Allied for Arms Reduction (Ecaar) and its South African chairman have hailed a decision by the Cape High Court ordering the government to hand over key documents pertaining to its controversial arms deal as an "important victory".

Yesterday justices Dennis Davis and Andre Blignault gave the government, President Thabo Mbeki and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel 10 days to hand the documents to Ecaar.

Ecaar is seeking the collapse of the entire arms deal, which so far has cost the government R30 billion and could balloon to R287bn by 2010, according to Ecaar chairman Terry Crawford-Browne.

Justices Davis and Blignault rejected Ecaar's application for other documents.

With acknowledgements to Gustav Thiel and Cape Times.