India in Prince Charles protocol dilemma

India is yet to decide who will open the Commonwealth Games next Sunday, raising the possibility of a snub to Britain's Prince Charles, who was expected to preside over the event, officials say.

Queen Elizabeth, who would normally open the Games as head of the Commonwealth, in May decided against travelling to India and has sent her son Charles in her place.

The move, which drew criticism in India, has led organisers to discuss whether the Indian President Pratibha Patil should instead open the Games in a move that would break with tradition and likely irk the royal family.

"The decision is yet to be taken," the secretary to the Indian president, Archana Datta, told AFP on Monday. "If the decision is taken, I will let the media know."

The Indian ANI news agency quoted unnamed government and Games organising committee sources as saying it would be the president. No one from the organising committee was available to comment to AFP.

An official in the British embassy in New Delhi sought to play down any friction over the role and said protocol for the ceremony was not yet finalised.

"There's no sense of a spat or battle. That's genuinely not true," the spokesman told AFP. "Precisely how the Games are opened has been under discussion for some time. There are numerous ways these things can be done."

He added that there would be "an element of jointness" between the prince and the president.

"Who stands where and who says what is still undecided and now being finalised," he said.

The prince and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, will arrive in Delhi on Saturday and also visit Chandigarh and Jodhpur during a five-day tour.

Delhi 2010, the biggest multi-sport event to be staged in India since the Asian Games in 1982, will feature more than 70 nations and territories mainly from the former British empire.

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