Egypt's decision to cut all cooperation with France's Louvre Museum had nothing to do with the country's culture minister failing to secure UNESCO's top job, the antiquities chief said on Thursday.

"Halting cooperation with the Louvre Museum has nothing to do with the results of the UNESCO election in which Culture Minister Faruq Hosni was a candidate," Zahi Hawass said in a statement.

Last month, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation picked Bulgarian Irina Bokova as its new director-general over Hosni, who was met with heavy opposition abroad over accusations of anti-Semitism.

France's Le Monde newspaper reported at the time that Paris had initially supported Hosni's candidacy but voted against him in the final round. That was never officially confirmed.

And an Egyptian state-owned newspaper claimed Hosni's campaign had been subjected to an "uncivilised attack by Jewish intellectuals in France."

But Hawass insisted that the issue with the Louvre "goes back to last January, eight months before the UNESCO elections took place."

Officials say Egypt had asked then for the return of Pharaonic relics but when its requests were ignored, it took a decision two months ago to sever ties with the museum.

On Wednesday, Egypt announced the decision, in the latest row involving the exhibits of a major European institution.

French sources said the antiquities in question are decorative fragments from a tomb in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor.

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand pledged that France is ready to return the relics to Egypt if they were indeed stolen.

Mitterrand said he has convened for Friday a meeting of a special commission that is empowered to rule on restitution.

It is not the first time Egypt has cut cooperation with museums abroad.

Hawass severed ties with St Louis Art Museum in 2006 when it failed to return an ancient Egyptian burial mask.

He took similar steps against the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels.

In recent years Egyptian authorities have been increasingly vociferous in campaigning for the return of important works.