Egyptologists cast doubt Tuesday on an expedition's claim that it may have found the mummy of Queen Nefertiti, one of the best-known ancient Egyptians. Skeptics said X-ray analysis of the mummy found in Luxor's Valley of the Kings, the ancient royal burial ground for Egypt's pharaohs, indicates it is the body of a 16-year-old girl. Nefertiti is believed to have died in her 30s.

America's Discovery Channel announced the discovery on Monday. It said the team found the mummy in a secret side chamber in a tomb known as KV35, which housed two other mummies as well.

The channel said one of the mummies had a double pierced ear lobe and a bent arm, considered signs of ancient Egyptian royalty. It also said the mummy "bore a striking profile and swanlike neck comparable to the famed beauty Nefertiti''--apparently a reference to two statues of Nefertiti discovered before World War I now on display in Cairo and Berlin.

The team was led by Joann Fletcher, a member of the University of York's Mummy Research Team in England. Fletcher took interest in the mummies inside the tomb when she discovered a forgotten royal wig there from the XVIII dynasty. That dynasty, to which Nefertiti belonged, dates from the 14th century BC.

"I could not believe it, that moment when I first saw her,'' the Discovery Channel quoted Fletcher as saying. "Although we can only suggest the identity as a strong possibility, the expedition's findings certainly have some wide-ranging implications for Egyptology.''

Zahi Hawaas, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said any similarity between the mummy's face and Nefertiti's statue isn't worthy evidence because during the period when the queen lived "art was idealistic and not realistic.''

He said X-rays of the mummy have shown it to belong to a 16-year-old, whereas Nefertiti is thought to have died in her 30s.

Other Egyptologists have also said it will be very hard to prove the mummy belongs to Nefertiti.

Fletcher "is making a lot of assumptions. It is hard to prove this is Nefertiti,'' said Lisa Sabbahy, a professor of Egyptology at the American university in Cairo.

She said that at the end Egyptian New Kingdom, many royal tombs were robbed. This prompted priests to collect all the mummies and put them in new coffins in other locations.

During this process, a wig belonging to one mummy might have been put on another, she said. Other evidence, such as the double pierced earlobe and arm, simply proves that the mummy belonged to the royal family, Sabbahy said.

She said a DNA test used to compare unknown mummies to those belonging to identified members of the royal family also would not help because Nefertiti came from outside the royal family.

Nefertiti, whose name means ``the beautiful woman has come,'' was the wife of Akhenaton--the XVIII dynasty king who rejected the traditional priesthood of Amoun and worshipped Aton.

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