According to Mena FN.com, during a press conference, Mr Khattab dismissed accusations that he had allowed a several-hundred-tonne shipment of spoiled poultry to enter the Kingdom.

"No shipment of spoiled chicken entered the country and anyone who said that is a liar," he stressed.

The minister's remarks came in response to allegations by head of the agriculture ministry's inspection and monitoring unit Raed Odwan who, in a press conference last week, accused "influential persons" of facilitating the entry of spoiled poultry from Iraq to Jordan.

Director of the ministry's veterinary department Munther Rifai stressed that the 245-tonne shipment of poultry in question, which entered the country from Iraq recently, underwent intensive laboratory tests that proved its compliance with the technical standards except for 22 tonnes that were destroyed.