By Dan Isaacs BBC correspondent in Lagos

The Nigerian Government has warned that it will prosecute any foreign journalist who publishes malicious falsehoods about the country.

The statement made by Justice Minister Kanu Agabi follows a recent report in the American news magazine Time, accusing government officials of corruption.

The minister said the next time anyone comes here and writes falsehoods about the country he would be submitted to the due process of law

Mr Agabi was speaking at a press conference to mark the publication of an investigation into the allegations made in the magazine article.

Last week's issue of Time magazine sold like hot cakes here, and now photocopies of the offending article are being passed among Nigerians eager to know what all the fuss is about.

If the government had hoped to put a lid on the affair by announcing an investigation into the bribery allegations, it has had the opposite effect.

Brown envelopes

But the allegations are serious and the government has now strenuously denied them.

The Time magazine article reported that Information Minister Jerry Gana called a meeting in February this year to berate foreign journalists on their inaccurate and negative reporting of events in Nigeria, and in particular the coverage by the US television network CNN of recent riots in Lagos.

What is clear is that President Obasanjo is becoming increasingly sensitive to media coverage of issues such as ethnic violence, insecurity and corruption in the country

Following that meeting, the Time article alleges that journalists were presented with a pack containing government reference books, in the same bag as a brown envelope stuffed with about $400.

Most foreign journalists, myself included, returned the money, either at the meeting or soon afterwards.

The government investigation into these allegations says the cash was clearly intended as travel and accommodation expenses and certainly not to influence anyone to write more positively on Nigerian affairs.

The justice minister said that the next time anyone comes here and writes falsehoods about our country he would be submitted to the due process of law so that if there was any need for him to go to prison he would go to prison.

What is clear about this robust government response is that President Obasanjo - who is widely expected to announce on Thursday his intention to stand for re-election next year - is becoming increasingly sensitive to media coverage of issues such as ethnic violence, insecurity and corruption in the country, at the expense of the positive achievements of his government.