KATHMANDU, 09 December, 2020, (TON): The world's highest peak is now taller by 86 centimetres, Nepal and China jointly announced on Tuesday.

The agreed height of 8,848.86 metres (29,031 feet) unveiled at a news conference in Kathmandu was 86 centimetres (2.8 feet) higher than the measurement previously recognised by Nepal, and more than four metres above China’s official figure.

Until now the countries differed over whether to add the snow cap on top.

China's previous official measurement of 8,844.43m had put the mountain nearly four metres lower than Nepal's.

Everest stands on the border between China and Nepal and mountaineers climb it from both sides.

Officials at Nepal's foreign ministry and department of survey said surveyors from both countries had co-ordinated to agree on the new height.

The agreement to jointly announce the new measurement of the Earth's highest point was made during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu last year.

Chinese authorities had said previously Mount Everest should be measured to its rock height, while Nepalese authorities argued the snow on top of the summit should be included.

The Chinese surveyors had calculated their figure after they measured the mountain in 2005.

The 8,848m height Nepal had been using for Mount Everest was determined by the Survey of India in 1954, but for the first time the country has now conducted its own measurement of the summit.

Four Nepalese land surveyors spent two years training for the mission, before heading to the summit.