PARIS, July 26 - The Normandy D-Day beaches where Allied forces landed on June 6, 1944, to fight Adolf Hitler's Nazi troops and go on to liberate France have become a UNESCO protected world heritage site, the United Nations body said on Sunday.

• In a statement on its website, UNESCO said that the beaches formed an "exceptional cultural landscape shaped both by the events of 1944 and by their enduring remembrance", which therefore justified becoming a protected heritage site.

• The Normandy D-Day beaches are regularly the focus of commemorations featuring world leaders from the United States, Britain, Canada and France.

• Soldiers participating in the Normandy landings came from the United States, Britain, Canada, Belgium, Norway, Poland, Luxembourg, Greece, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand and Australia. Some 177 French commandos also took part.

• The assault marked a decisive stage in the liberation of Europe from Nazi Germany in World War Two.

• In total, 156,115 Allied troops either landed by sea -- on to beaches codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword -- or were airdropped behind German coastal defences. REUTERS

Normandy's D-Day World War Two beaches become UNESCO heritage site