BRUNEI - In the annals of fraternal feuds, surely none has matched the one that has played out for almost a decade between the Sultan of Brunei and his younger brother, Prince Jefri.

It has been a legal battle over dollars - billions of them. Now, however, with the elder of the two throwing in the towel, it might at last be over.

Until last week, Jefri, 51, faced possible imprisonment because of his brother's continuing legal action against him.

The man they call the Playboy Prince, whose taste in luxuries once ran to a gem-studded watch that revealed a copulating couple on the hour, and a yacht named Tits, is free and clear.

Instead of a prison cell, he can relax in any one of his grandiose homes in London, New York and Paris.

According to representatives of both sides, the Sultan, who was once listed as the world's wealthiest person, agreed in London's High Court last week to drop action against Jefri and pay legal fees of £1 million ($2.58 million).

The Sultan is still not talking to his younger sibling - and hasn't for two years - but his legal onslaught has been called off.

For Brunei, a tiny but oil- and gas-rich sultanate of just 350,000 people on the northern edge of the island of Borneo, and for its ruling royal family, which has close ties to the British Royals and to the owner of Harrods, Mohamed al-Fayed, this must be good news indeed.

Maybe at last, the humiliating public washing of their dollars-drenched laundry will be brought to an end.

Before the start of this family unpleasantness, all we knew of the brothers and their extended clans was that they were fabulously rich, thanks to their nation's energy resources.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who is now 59, not only topped the world's most-wealthy lists, but he showed little restraint in flaunting his fortune to the rest of the world.

Brunei had the reputation as some kind of gold-encrusted fantasy land.

You had only to visit it to see the evidence. The Sultan had - and still has - a palace with plenty of space for guests. More specifically, the royal residence has no fewer than 1788 rooms and corridors of gilt and marble.

He had built mosques to rival any in the world, with minarets adorned in gold, pillars of Italian marble and welcome signs on their gates that were decorated with diamonds.

It is alleged that in the mid-90s Brunei's ruling family accounted for 50 per cent of all Rolls-Royce sales worldwide. But when it comes to cars, we were later to learn, no one could match Jefri for extravagant tastes.

They built one of the world's most extravagant theme parks for the citizenry of Brunei, charging £5 ($12) a ticket.