Clarke was buried on Saturday in Colombo, where he had lived since 1956.

Obituary writers have resurrected the 1998 accusations that he had sex with young boys in his adopted country Sri Lanka.

But the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) chief, Jagath Wellawatte, said there was no case against the writer, who captured the world's imagination with '2001: A Space Odyssey' and visions of extra-terrestrial civilisations.

'We had no case against Clarke and no one had come forward to say they were abused by him,' Mr Wellawatte told AFP. The agency was established under new child protection laws enacted after the allegations against Clarke surfaced.

'We have not had any formal complaint or testimony from anyone saying they were abused by Sir Arthur,' said NCPA investigator W.T.D. Wijesena. 'We cannot go on the basis of rumours.' The forerunner to the NCPA, the Presidential Task Force on the Prevention of Child Abuse, had in 1998 initiated an investigation into Clarke's conduct with the help of Interpol.

Police spent two and a half hours recording a statement from Clarke in 1998, but no charges were brought against him.

Clarke, who died on Wednesday at age 90, vehemently denied the allegations and also threatened to sue the British newspaper which made the charges following a 'sting operation' by two undercover reporters.

Clarke said at the time that he was 'disturbed to discover that there has been a long-standing conspiracy here in Sri Lanka to discredit him ... involving activists associated with child welfare organisations.' The accusations surfaced while Britain's Prince Charles was visiting Colombo and was due to confer a knighthood on Clarke. The investiture was eventually held two years later.

Upon Clarke's death, there were no official condolences from London, and the High Commission or embassy in Colombo only briefly noted Clarke's death with 'sadness' on its website.

'Even in death, the sage of science fiction could not shake off the accusations of paedophilia levelled against him,' wrote British newspaper The Times.

Children's rights groups in Sri Lanka, which were quite vocal when the allegetions were first levelled, have largely remained silent following Clarke's death.

'It is a cultural practice here that we don't speak ill of the dead,' said Mr Sunanda Deshapriya, director of the private Centre for Policy Alternatives think tank.

'They may also feel that the celebrity status of Clarke will have some reflected glory on Sri Lanka, and to criticise him now would be to take away some of that shine.' -- AFP