Panama President José Raúl Mulino has rejected the U.S. State Department's claim that his country had reached a deal allowing U.S. warships to transit the Panama Canal for free.

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino on Thursday rejected U.S. claims that American warships and boats can transit the Panama Canal without paying a standard fee. In a weekly news conference,

Panama's president says the State Department's claim of an agreement granting U.S. warships free canal passage was "based on a falsity. And that's intolerable."