Denmark will get its first mosque after the Copenhagen city council gave the green light to its construction, the mayor's office said.

The 2,000-square-metre mosque will be built by the city's Shiite Muslim community on the site for a former factory in a working-class neighbourhood in northwest Copenhagen.

A 24-metre-high blue dome will tower over the place of worship flanked by two, 32-metre-high minarets. But no calls to prayer will blare from the towers in order not to disturb the neighbourhood.

Denmark has had a tense relationship with the Muslim world since a Danish newspaper published in 2005 satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, sparking anger and protests in several Muslim nations.

Hamid El Mousti, a Copenhagen city council member of Moroccan origin, said it was time for Muslims to have a proper place to practice their religion in Denmark.

"It is comforting to finally see Copenhagen and Denmark get a real mosque, because Muslims are currently left with apartments, basements and abandoned hangars as places of worship," said Mr El Mousti, a Social Democrat.

The mosque, financed through private donations, will cost between 40 million and 50 million kroners (€6.7 million) to build.

"With this decision, we hope that this mosque will contribute actively in showing that Copenhagen is a diverse city," Klaus Bondam, a deputy mayor, said.

The city has "a synagogue, a Russian (Orthodox) church, and it is natural for it to also have a mosque," he said, noting that a large number of the country's 200,000 Muslims live in Copenhagen.