US museum agrees mummy's return

A museum in the United States has agreed to return what is thought to be the mummy of the Pharoah, Rameses I, nearly 150 years after it was taken from Egypt.

Its whereabouts only came to light after the Egyptian authorities set up a bureau to track stolen relics.

The mummy which is more than 2,000 years old was stolen from Egypt in 1859, at a time when trade in antiquities from the region was rife.

It eventually ended up in a university museum in Atlanta, Georgia, which has now agreed after months of negotiations to hand it back.

Egypt has threatened to suspend scientific cooperation with other American museums unless all stolen relics are returned.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service