Dubai said that it had seized scores of ancient artefacts, some of them 5,000 years old, from a gang trying to smuggle them into the emirate.

The 128 pieces, confiscated by customs authorities in June, come from around the Middle East, particularly Iraq, whose museums and palaces were plundered after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, according to our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News.

Customs chief Ahmed Butti, who did not explain the delay in announcing the seizure, said initial examinations showed the oldest artefacts date back to 3000 BC.

'These pieces are priceless,' Butti said.

The items included pottery pieces with Arabic inscriptions and animal paintings, silver vessels, gold and silver coins and jewellery.

Butti said experts from the British National Museum will visit Dubai in January to examine the artefacts and determine their origin, so they can be returned to their countries of origin.

Six Iranian men were arrested when they tried to smuggle the artefacts into the country aboard a ship that docked in Dubai's Creek, Butti said. The artefacts were found in a compartment the men had refused to open.

More than 32,000 artefacts were looted from 12,000 archaeological sites in Iraq during the chaos that followed the US-led invasion in 2003, and 15,000 items were also stolen from the Baghdad National Museum.-TradeArabia News Service