DAMASCUS (AFP) - Syria's interior ministry has denied the existence of a mass grave in the southern town of Daraa, which the army had raided to put down anti-regime protests, SANA news agency said Tuesday. "This information is totally false," an interior ministry official told the state news agency. "Reports of a mass grave in Daraa are completely untrue. These reports are part of a campaign of incitement and lies against Syria." A rights activist told AFP on Monday that a mass grave had been disccovered in the old town of Daraa, at the heart of protests roiling the country for two months and virtually shut off from the outside world. "The army (Monday) allowed residents to venture outside their homes for two hours a day," said Ammar Qurabi, of the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria. "They discovered a mass grave in the old part of town but authorities immediately cordoned off the area to prevent residents from recovering the bodies, some of which they promised would be handed over later," he said by telephone.