SYDNEY (AFP) -- The Australian defense department on Monday denied testing the powerful defoliant Agent Orange in rainforest near a town in the country's far northeast during the Vietnam War.

Defense officials were asked to investigate whether the toxic chemical had been tested near the Queensland town of Innisfail following media reports that it had been trialed there in 1966.
The media reports said that foliage in the area, which is about 100 meters (yards) from the town's water supply, had never properly re-grown after the testing.
But the Defense Science and Technology Organization (DSTO) said Agent Orange had never been used in or near Innisfail.
""DSTO's search of archived reports shows that no trials have been carried out by defense scientists in the Innisfail area using Agent Orange,"" a defense spokesman said in a statement.
The military conducted ""one small-scale defoliation trial"" in an area near Innisfail in 1966 to test the performance of herbicides in regular use in the farming and forestry industries, he said.
""Small quantities of commercially available chemicals, Diquat, Tordon and Dimethyl sulfoxide were used,"" the spokesman said.
""Contrary to media reports, the herbicide 2,4-D -- a component of Agent Orange -- was not used in this trial.""
Agent Orange, widely used by U.S. forces in Vietnam to clear jungle cover, contains the extremely toxic chemical dioxin.