The world boxing championships began in Baku Monday amid official fury at claims that multi-million dollar bribes were paid to ensure gold medals for Azerbaijani fighters at the 2012 Olympic Games.

The state's emergency situations minister, who also heads Azerbaijan's boxing federation, told local media on the eve of the tournament that the corruption allegations raised in a BBC television program were lies.

"It is wrong to disseminate news based on false information to the international community and the people who organized it must be held responsible," Kamaladdin Heydarov told the apasport.az website.

An investigation by BBC's Newsnight program alleged that $9 million was paid by an Azerbaijani national to organizers of the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA)'s World Series of Boxing (WSB).

The money was allegedly paid to secure gold medals for Azerbaijani fighters competing at next year's Olympic Games.

But Heydarov said that the claims could easily be disproved.

"AIBA and Azerbaijan's boxing federation have the facts to prove the defamatory nature of this information," he said.

AIBA president Wu Ching- Kuo has also rejected the allegations as "totally untrue and ludicrous" but confirmed that the organization would launch an investigation.

"I will immediately conduct an investigation into this because there is a zero-tolerance policy in AIBA," Wu said last week.

"Any corruption or manipulation is totally unacceptable," he said.

A special investigation committee will meet for the first time at the world championships in Baku, he added.

Olympic boxing has long battled allegations of corruption and questions over its scoring system.

Agencies