BUCKINGHAM Palace yesterday refused to authenticate an allegedly bugged telephone conversation between the Duke of Edinburgh and a "posh" female friend.
A palace spokeswoman denounced the selling of the alleged 17 minute conversation to a British tabloid as "distasteful" but refused to say whether Prince Philip was considering any legal action.
"The Duke of Edinburgh's private telephone conversations are precisely that, private. Whether or not it was the duke in this particular case, we leave it to others to judge the actions of an eavesdropper who listens to private conversations and makes available what he gleans by devious means to the media," she said.
Prince Philip is the fourth member of the British royal family to have had a mobile telephone conversation intercepted, allegedly by an amateur radio operator.
However, unlike earlier tapped royal telephone conversations involving James Gilbey and Princess Diana, Prince Charles and Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles, and the Duchess of York, the duke reportedly does not reveal any embarrassing details or make any intimate suggestions.
Instead, Prince Philip, who appears to be on very familiar terms with the woman, described by the Sun as coming from a "horsey background", engages in a lighthearted banter discussing his family's plans for Christmas.
During the conversation, which is said to have taken place on December 21st last, the duke also mentions the impending divorce of the Prince and Princess of Wales and refers to Queen Elizabeth, the British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, and Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles.
The Sun, which bought the tape, says the conversation was intercepted by a radio ham named John from his home in Norfolk. Prince Philip was said to be speaking from Sandringham, where members of the royal family were gathering for Christmas.
However, security experts have cast doubt on this version of events, claiming that the alleged conversation was deliberately bugged by a member of Britain's security services at GCHQ. During her infamous interview on Panorama, Princess Diana also suggested that the royal family's telephone conversations were routinely bugged and their where abouts monitored.
"It is all too much of a coincidence to believe that all these royal conversations were just accidentally recorded by radio hams. With the `Dukegate' tape, a definite pattern of routine taping of royal telephone calls seems to be emerging," said one security source.
Following the worldwide publication of Camillagate in 1992, the Royal Protection Squad urged members of the royal household to stop using mobile phones for private conversations, warning that electronic scanners could intercept the call and expose them to blackmail.
It is understood that Prince Charles has spent thousands of pounds on a special tap proof digital telephone system, while Princess Diana regularly has her house swept for bugs.
Meanwhile, Princess Diana has said her divorce from Prince Charles will be "sooner and easier than I had anticipated", according to the Daily Mirror.
The report said that Princess Diana told a London lunch attended by 70 US journalists that there would be "no problem" about access to her sons, Prince William (13) and Prince Harry (11).
And Hello magazine has reported that Ms Tiggy LeggeBourke (30), Prince Charles's assistant, has told friends why she took legal action against Prince Diana over a whispered remark at a staff Christmas party. The report said she told friends she had never been romantically involved with the prince and had a clear conscience.