New radar scans have provided conclusive evidence that there are no hidden rooms inside King Tutankhamun's burial chamber, Egypt's antiquities ministry said on Sunday, bringing a disappointing end to years of excitement over the prospect.

At one point officials had said they were 90 percent certain of a secret room behind the boy king's 3000-year-old resting place, sparking feverish speculation it might contain the tomb of his step-mother Queen Nefertiti.

But Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said an Italian team conducted extensive studies with ground-penetrating radar that showed the tomb did not contain any hidden, man-made blocking walls as was earlier suspected.

Francesco Porcelli of the Polytechnic University of Turin presented the findings at an international conference in Cairo.

"Our work shows in a conclusive manner that there are no hidden chambers, no corridors adjacent to Tutankhamun's tomb," Dr Porcelli said, "As you know there was a theory that argued the possible existence of these chambers but unfortunately our work is not supporting this theory."