3,000-year-old pharaonic coffin to be returned by the United States to Egypt

US authorities will return to Egypt an ornately painted pharaonic coffin smuggled out of the country more than 125 years ago, said Egyptian Culture Minister Faruq Hosni.

The 3,000-year-old casket, which was painted with inscriptions to help its occupant in the afterlife, would be handed over to Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass next month, Mr Hosni said in a statement.

Egypt had last year asked the United States to return the wooden coffin, which dates back to the 21st dynasty (1081-931 BC) and contains the remains of a man named Emus but about whom little else was known.

On Monday, Mr Hawass said US Immigration and Customs had contacted him in 2008 about the coffin after confiscating it from a Spanish merchant who had shipped it to Florida for sale.

The Spanish dealer "has no papers proving ownership of the coffin, which indicates the coffin left Egypt illegally," the antiquities chief said in a statement.

"An investigation by US authorities in Florida confirmed that (the Spaniard) has family ties with the special coordinator who owns the Egyptian museum in Barcelona," he said without elaborating.

Mr Hawass added that no one appeared to own the coffin, which Egypt says was originally smuggled out of the country in 1884. "It's for the best that it returns to its original owners," he added.

Since becoming head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in 2002, Mr Hawass says he has brought 6,000 relics back to Egypt.