Royal 'incident'

LONDON -- A newspaper in Britain has published an interview today with the former royal servant whose allegations involving Prince Charles have been the subject of media and public speculation for a week.But the report in The Mail today shed little new light on the allegations by former royal valet George Smith, because a court order restricted reporting.

The newspaper quoted Smith as saying he had witnessed an incident -- not described or qualified -- involving Prince Charles and another royal aide. Smith also reportedly claimed he was raped by the same aide. The newspaper gave no further details.

Rumors about the allegations have circulated in Britain for days but an injunction secured by Michael Fawcett, a former senior aide to the prince, prevents details being published here.

Charles' office at Clarence House issued a pre-emptive statement Thursday, saying he was the "senior royal" involved in the allegations. The statement said the allegations were untrue and Charles' private secretary Sir Michael Peat has dismissed them as "totally ludicrous."

The Mail on Sunday said Smith reported both incidents to Princess Diana and that she recorded his statement. Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, had previously disclosed the existence of such a tape.

Charles' statement described the man making the allegations as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism following military service in the Falklands War.

"He has, in the past, made other unrelated allegations, which the police have fully investigated and found to be unsubstantiated," said the statement, which did not use Smith's name.

Smith, 43, worked for Charles for 11 years until 1997.

The News of the World, another Sunday newspaper, quoted Charles' former aide Mark Bolland as saying that Peat once asked him: "Do you think Charles is bisexual?" Bolland said he responded that the prince "was emphatically not gay or bisexual." The newspaper also quoted Peat as saying had never used the word "bisexual" in his life.

Charles, who has been visiting the Gulf state of Oman, was due back in Britain on Sunday.