A discovery set to shake the roots of one of the world's great religions looks set to be confirmed by archaeologists from Bradford.

After years of research, Dr Robin Coningham from the University of Bradford believes he has conclusive proof that the Buddha, Siddhartha Guatama, grew up in Nepal and not India.

Buddha was born in nearby Lumbini, India, but in the 1960s Indian teams discredited finds made in the 19th Century suggesting the deity had grown up in the Nepalese town of Tilaurakot

Indian authorities have always insisted the religious figure grew up in Pipprahawa, near the border with Nepal.

Dr Coningham went to Tilaurakot with fellow university archaeologist Dr Armin Schmidt last winter.

And the Bradford University group claims to have dug deeper than the Indian teams did. The research, funded by UNESCO, has been carried out and the results are now published.

Today Dr Schmidt said: "The carbon dating is very close to getting a final date for the site.

"It is definitely earlier than previously thought and we are fairly convinced this is the site we have been looking for."

The researchers have spent more than four years on the dig, dating soil and a range of items including iron furnaces, terracotta crucibles and fragments of ancient scripture.

The Bradford team believes the Indian teams in the 1960s dated the remains found at Tilaurakot incorrectly because they tested only one section of the site and not the deepest.

When the team's initial findings were published last December Dr Coningham said: "Seldom has archaeology had such a superb opportunity to uncover the origins of one of the world's greatest religions."

A spokesman for the tourism department at the High Commission of India said the country was still the birthplace of Buddha and debates over his childhood had rumbled on throughout the centuries.