In a move clearly intended to raise the stakes after Egypt's recent demand for the return of artefacts from Sweden, Libya's chief archaeologist today demanded the return of all Libyan antiquities illegally held in Egypt. Since Libyan law defines an antiquity as 'an object created more than 150 years before the present, irrespective of its size or value', an estimated 81 billion objects are covered by the request, most of them grains of sand.

In his statement, which appeared on the website of the Antiquities Service of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Great Jamahiriya (ASSPLAGJ), Ibrahim Hassan said: "We are now in the process of demanding all that has been stolen illegally to come back. Egypt has for decades done nothing to stop the illegal import of aeolian sand from Libya. We formally request the return of this sand from the Egyptian government. In addition, we announce today a series of measures to prevent further illegal activity." Although the details of this plan were not revealed in the official statement, an accompanying mocked-up illustration - reproduced here - suggests Libya plans to erect a huge barrier along its Eastern boundary. A number of sets of rudimentary but large-scale apparatus for returning antique sand grains from the border back to the Libyan interior also seem to be included in the ambitious scheme.

Speaking exclusively to egyptastic.co.uk, a Libyan museum official denied suggestions that the scheme was a calculated attempt to boost the country's museum collections. "We only want what belongs to us returned to our care," he told us. "Egypt has her antiquities and we have ours. We are very proud of them. In fact, the world famous Umar al Mukhtar flint is an object whose beauty is only surpassed by that of the Bi'r Bin Ghunaymah pot handle."

Egypt's own Antiquities Service has been quick to respond to Libya's demands. Their Chief Self-publicity Officer Zahi Hawass interrupted his daily schedule of announcing other people's discoveries as if they were his own to address a hastily-arranged press conference. He was keen to dispute the Libyan version of the sand's origins. "Such talk of alien (sic) sand is nonsense," he said. "It is a matter of record that all grains of sand in Egypt were excavated by me."

Unnecessarily pronouncing his own name to a room full of journalists well aware of his identity, Hawass added: "Zahi Hawass".

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