Peru's leader denies fresh allegation of corruption

Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra on Monday denied a fresh allegation of corruption made against him almost a month after he escaped impeachment over a previous scandal.

The new accusation, revealed in a Sunday newspaper story based on an anonymous witness working with government prosecutors, is that Vizcarra accepted $280,000 in payoffs from a construction company involved in a public works project before he became president.

Vizcarra rejected the accusations on Monday and suggested that the complaints were a reprisal after he increased the pace of investigations of the "construction club" of engineering companies with links to government infrastructure projects.

"Every time you try to defeat that virus of corruption, it defends itself by attacking," Vizcarra told reporters.