Chinese President Xi Jinping has been accused of asking the World Health Organisation to delay a worldwide warning about the coronavirus pandemic back in January.

According to Der Spiegel, who received intelligence from the country's Federal Intelligence Service 'Bundesnachrichtendienst', the stall in relaying information to other countries cost precious time in the fight against COVID-19.

The report claims: "On January 21, China's leader Xi Jinping asked WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to hold back information about a human-to-human transmission and to delay a pandemic warning.

“The BND estimates that China's information policy lost four to six weeks to fight the virus worldwide.”

The WHO responded to the allegations by flatly denying any form of cover-up.

They said: "Dr Tedros and President Xi did not speak on January  21 and they have never spoken by phone. Such inaccurate reports distract and detract from WHO's and the world's efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic.

"China confirmed human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus on January 20 [prior to the alleged phone conversation].

"The WHO publicly declared on January 22 that ‘data collected … suggests that human-to-human transmission is taking place in Wuhan’.”

To date, there have been more than four million people tested positive for coronavirus and over 280,000 deaths.

As many as 11 countries have suffered more fatalities than China - where the virus originated - including most prominently the USA, who have seen more than 25 per cent of all global deaths.

And President Donald Trump has been aggressive in his criticism of China, insisting they ‘made a horrible mistake and didn’t want to admit it'.