Author Salman Rushdie has won the battle with Facebook over what to call himself on his profile page on the social network. The dispute with Facebook began after he asked to be allowed to use his middle name Salman - the name that has made him infamous around the world.

But Facebook, which has strict real name policies, had insisted on Ahmed - the novelist's first name. Mr Rushdie says Facebook "buckled" after he began tweeting the ordeal on Twitter.

@SalmanRushdie "Victory! #Facebook has buckled! I'm Salman Rushdie again. I feel SO much better. An identity crisis at my age is no fun. Thank you Twitter!"

"Just received an apology from The #Facebook Team. All is sweetness and light."

'Twitterverse ridicule'

Mr Rushdie, aged 64, told about his run-in with Facebook in a series of tweets. He says the social site even deactivated his account over the weekend "saying they didn't believe I was me". Mr Rushdie that he had to send a photo of his passport to Facebook, which led to the reactivation of his account - but only as "Ahmed Rushdie".

Angered by this, Mr Rushdie then decided to turn to what he described as "ridicule by the Twitterverse" about the row.

"Dear #Facebook, forcing me to change my FB name from Salman to Ahmed Rushdie is like forcing J. Edgar to become John Hoover.

"Or, if F. Scott Fitzgerald was on #Facebook, would they force him to be Francis Fitzgerald? What about F. Murray Abraham?" he tweeted.

A number of Mr Rushdie's followers retweeted his posts and shortly afterwards Facebook changed his account to Salman Rushdie.

Mr Rushdie lived in hiding under police protection for many years after the fatwa issued in 1989 against him by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini over his novel The Satanic Verses.

It was regarded as blasphemous by many Muslims, who protested by burning the book in public.