AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch authorities released Dutch businessman and oil tycoon John Deuss today, a court spokeswoman said.

Deuss was released around noon, the spokeswoman said, declining to give any details on the conditions of the release.

Deuss has not been interrogated in more than a month and the public prosecutor considered detention no longer necessary for the investigation, Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf reported today.

Deuss' solicitor could not immediately be reached for comment.

Deuss, 64, once considered one of the world's most important independent oil traders, arrived in the Netherlands in October from Bermuda and was arrested by Dutch police, who had issued a warrant for his arrest.

The warrant sought his extradition for questioning about alleged handling of stolen property, money laundering and belonging to a criminal organisation.

Deuss, who has maintained his innocence in the past, has declined comment since his arrest.

Deuss supplied the South African apartheid government with oil in the 1980s. He has also traded in Russian oil, before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Dutchman stepped down as chairman and chief executive officer of Bermuda Commercial Bank in September after it became public that the bank's leading shareholder, First Curacao International Bank, was being investigated for money laundering by regulators in the Netherlands and on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao.

First Curacao International is wholly owned by Deuss, who has had a home in Bermuda for about 30 years.