Washington, Mar 17 (AFP) US President Donald Trump doubled down Tuesday on calling the coronavirus spreading rapidly across the world the "Chinese Virus," despite protests from Beijing.

"It did come from China, so I think it's very accurate," Trump told a news conference, defending an earlier tweet in which he used the label for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump indicated that another motive was payback for what he said was China's disinformation campaign blaming the US military for the virus.

"China was putting out information which was false," he said.

"I didn't appreciate the fact that China was saying that our military gave it to them. Our military did not give it to anybody." (AFP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)