Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders has cancelled an "Islam Safari" through a Muslim-majority neighbourhood of Brussels after a Belgian mayor banned him from entering.

Mr Wilders and Belgian anti-immigrant politician Filip Dewinter had planned to tour the Molenbeek neighbourhood just after Muslim prayers on Friday.

Some of the extremists linked to the Paris massacres in November 2015 and the suicide bomb attacks in Brussels in March 2016 lived in or travelled through Molenbeek.

Belgian police and the army have remained on high alert for almost two years.

Molenbeek mayor Francoise Schepmans issued an order on Thursday saying the planned visit could not take place "to avoid any predictable threat to order and public peace".