AUTHORITIES in rural Argentina have arrested a 62-year-old man for raping his own daughter for more than three decades and fathering 10 children with her.

"The accused denied the allegations but DNA tests have confirmed paternity," Judge Virgilio Palud told local radio.

The man was charged with repeated sexual abuse and incest, crimes which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, the judge said.

The detained man's daughter, now age 43, claims to have been raped since the age of 13 at the family's home in the village of Nicanor Molinas, 600 kilometres north of Buenos Aires.

"It's even worse than what happened in Austria," the judge said, referring to the horrific crimes of Josef Fritzl, sentenced to life behind bars in 2009 for having kept his daughter imprisoned for 24 years, fathering seven children with her and killing one of them.

In the Argentinan case, one of the 10 children born of the rapes has already died.

The victim, whose identity was not released, said she waited so long to accuse her father because he had threatened her. She got her chance when he was arrested for the theft of some livestock.

The case is the second such shocking father-daughter abuse to emerge in Argentina in as many years.

Last year, the case of the "Monster of Mendoza" gripped Argentina, when a 67-year-old man was accused of raping and fathering seven children with one of his three daughters.

Originally published as Man fathers 10 kids with daughter