A top Egyptian official pressed Britain yesterday to return an ancient stone tablet seen as an icon of his country and denied his countrymen were "pirates of the Caribbean" seeking to steal it back.
Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said he had changed his mind after requesting a temporary loan of the Rosetta Stone from London's British Museum due to their allegedly prickly attitude.
He now just wants the stone - a basalt slab seen as key to deciphering hieroglyphics - back for good.
"When I said... I want to have it on a short-term loan, the British Museum wrote a letter to say that (they) need to know the security of (the) museum that will host," the stone in Egypt, the archaeologist told BBC radio.
He did not like the tone of the museum's letter, he said, adding: "Even some people in the press began to say: 'If the British Museum will give the Rosetta Stone to Egypt, maybe Egyptians will not return it back.'
"We are not the pirates of the Caribbean. We are a civilised country. If I... sign a contract with the British Museum, (we) will return it," added Dr Hawass.
"Therefore, we decided not to host the Rosetta Stone, but to ask for the Rosetta Stone to come back for good to Egypt, because it's a part of the icon of the Egyptian identity."
The stone, which dates back to 196 BC, was discovered in Egypt by French forces in 1799 and given to the British under a treaty two years later.
Its discovery led to a breakthrough in deciphering hieroglyphics, since it includes the same text in the ancient Egyptian script plus two other languages, including ancient Greek, for comparison. Roy Clare, head of Britain's Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, said the stone must stay in London.
"This icon is an icon globally. What happens to an object is it inherits additional culture through its acquisition," he said, adding that through scholarship it "becomes important in relation to other cultural iconography."
He reiterated that the British Museum could be willing to loan the Rosetta Stone to Egypt on a temporary basis.
"If Dr Hawass were to at some point request a loan, the trustees would clearly consider it. But it would be helpful not to have this in the climate of debate about recovery" of the stone on a permament basis by Egypt, he said.
The British Museum in also home to the Elgin Marbles, removed from Greece at the start of the 18th century, which have long been the subject of dispute between London and Athens.