Prince Harry says sorry for wearing Nazi costume

Britain's Prince Harry has apologised after he wore a Nazi uniform to a costume party two weeks before Queen Elizabeth is due to lead the country's holocaust memorial events.

In the latest of a string of gaffes, Harry, 20, wore a red and black swastika armband and an army shirt with Nazi regalia at the party at a friend's house on Saturday.

The incident will heap more embarrassment on the royal family and Harry, third in line to the British throne and due to train at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst this year.

Queen Elizabeth is due to host a reception for survivors of the holocaust on January 27 before representing the nation at the Holocaust Memorial Day National Event.

"I am very sorry if I have caused any offence," Harry, youngest son of the late Princess Diana and heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, said in a statement. "It was a poor choice of costume and I apologise."

A picture of Harry in his Nazi outfit was taken at the private house party in Wiltshire, southwest England. It was published on the front page of the Sun newspaper under the headlines "Hitler Youth" and "Harry the Nazi".

It showed him with a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other, surrounded by young people, including a woman wearing a native American dress and feathers in her hair.

The Sun said the party, with the theme "Native and Colonial", was at the house of Olympic horseman Richard Meade.

It said among the 250 guests was Harry's older brother William, dressed as a big cat with black leggings and joke feet.

The Nazi gaffe drew immediate condemnation from religious bodies, royal commentators and legislators.

"The incident was in bad taste, especially in the run up to the Holocaust Memorial Day, which the royal family will be playing a leading role in commemorating," the Board of Deputies of British Jews said in a statement.

Former royal press officer Dickie Arbiter said the prince had been "incredibly stupid and arrogant".

"He should know by now that there is no such thing as private," he told Sky News. "He has been allowed to get away with murder."

Former armed forces minister Doug Henderson was quoted as saying by the BBC that the picture showed the prince was "not suitable" for Sandhurst.

Six million Jews and millions of other people - including Poles, Soviet prisoners and Gypsies - were killed or imprisoned in concentration camps or used as slave labour.

After being left alone by the British media for a few years following the death of his mother in a Paris car crash in 1997, Harry has earned a reputation as a royal "wild child".

He has admitted smoking cannabis and underage drinking and has been forced to deny claims he cheated in a school exam.

Last October, he scuffled with photographers outside a London nightclub. Pictures of the incident were splashed across newspapers under the headline "Harry Potty".

The Queen is descended from Germany's House of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, although the royal family dropped the name in favour of Windsor in 1917 during World War One.

Germany has long complained that the Nazi past still blights British perceptions of the country. On a visit to Britain last year, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said he was amazed at the lingering portrayal of Germany in the British media as a nation of Nazis.

- REUTERS