A U.S. appeals court on Monday gave the Biden administration until Nov. 8 to hold an expanded sale of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico, extending a deadline ordered by a Louisiana federal judge last week.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request by the U.S. Interior Department to stay part of an order issued by U.S. District Judge James Cain, which had given the government until the end of the month to hold an auction that includes 6 million acres (2.4 million hectares) more than it had planned to offer.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom and Clark Mindock; Editing by Sandra Maler)