The Edhi Foundation will bury the mummified body of a young woman once thought to be an ancient Persian princess later this month. Found in Quetta in 2000, the body was at the centre of an archaeological and diplomatic dispute for two years before scientists at Atomic Research Council pronounced it just 20 years old.

Iran swiftly withdrew claims on the mummy that some people believed had been stolen by grave robbers from burial grounds of the Sasani dynasty, which ruled ancient Persia between the fourth and eighth centuries.

Touted as a major archaeological find until it was debunked, governments of Balochistan and Sindh had also squabbled over whose museum had first rights.

But when nobody wanted it, Edhi Foundation took in the homeless corpse.

"It has been lying in our cold storage mortuary for the last three years," Rizwan Edhi, the trust's administrator, said on Friday, adding that preserving the body had cost $8,000. "We will bury it later this month as no one is willing to claim it now."

Copyright Reuters, 2005