London - A British woman suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS) Thursday won a landmark legal victory in her battle to clarify the law on assisted suicide.

Britain's Law Lords, the country's highest court, backed Debbie Purdy's request for a policy statement clarifying under what circumstances a person could be prosecuted for helping a loved one to die.

Purdy, 46, from Bradford in the northern county of Yorkshire, has said she wants to end her life in a clinic in Switzerland which helps people to die should her suffering become intolerable.

But she has insisted that she must be clear whether her husband, Cuban violinist Omar Puente, would face prosecution under British law if he accompanied her and helped her to die.

Purdy's case has repeatedly been rejected by lower courts in Britain.

Her victory means that Britain's main prosecuting agency, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), will now have to clarify the legal position - a step that could lead to an amendment of the current law which prohibits so-called assisted suicide.

"I'm ecstatic. I feel like I have my life back," Purdy said outside the House of Lords in London.(dpa)