American author Dan Brown has said accusations that he stole the ideas for his best-selling novel 'The Da Vinci Code' are "completely fanciful".
Brown took the witness stand at London's High Court on Monday to give evidence after historians Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh sued publisher Random House for plagiarism.
In a statement, the novelist said that he had credited their work in his book.
"I would like to restate that I remain astounded by the claimants' choice to file this plagiarism suit," he added.
"For them to suggest, as I understand they do, that I have hijacked and exploited their work is simply untrue."
The historians, who gave evidence last week, are suing Brown's British publisher Random House - which also publishes their own 1982 non-fiction work, 'The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'.
Both books deal with a theory of Jesus marrying and having a child by Mary Magdalene and their bloodline still survives.
A film of 'The Da Vinci Code', starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou as symbologist Robert Langdon and cryptographer Sophie Neveu, is due for release this summer.
