Hanoi  - A Vietnamese government official Tuesday regretted Egypt's decision last week to temporarily halt imports of Vietnamese catfish.

"I am very sad about this decision," said Luong Le Phuong, deputy minister of agriculture and rural development in charge of aquatic products. Phuong said the sudden decision had been taken on the basis of "information from the media, instead of from scientific sources."

The Egyptian embassy in Hanoi last week ceased granting catfish export licenses to Vietnamese companies. The Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram, the country's largest, recommended earlier this month that Egyptian consumers boycott Vietnamese catfish because of pollution in the Mekong River where they are raised.

Phuong said Egypt should have given Vietnam adequate notice so that the two sides could work out a joint solution.

At a meeting Monday organized by Vietnam's agriculture ministry, Nguyen Huy Tiep, the department director for quality management, accused Egyptian media of making allegations about Vietnamese catfish without test results to back them up. Tiep said several shipments of catfish that had already left Vietnam would be unable to unload in Egyptian ports.

"The allegation that Vietnamese catfish do not meet hygiene standard is only an excuse," Phuong said. "In fact, they want to protect African carps."

Phuong said Vietnam would invite Egyptian experts to visit Mekong catfish breeding farms to verify conditions there.

Vietnamese seafood exports to Egypt surged from 20 million dollars in 2007 to 63 million dollars in 2008. Catfish products account for nearly 90 per cent of the total.

In December, Russia banned Vietnamese catfish for alleged hygiene violations. But it lifted the ban in March after a three-month investigation. (dpa)