'Diana would be proud'

The Duchess of York leapt to the defence of Prince Harry over his Nazi costume blunder yesterday, saying: 'His mother would be proud of him.'

The prince's aunt said he 'deserved a break' and added: 'I am behind him 100 per cent. OK, he wore a fancy dress costume, he got it wrong. I hope the world accepts his apology.'

A photo on the front page of yesterday's Sun newspaper showed the 20-year-old Royal enjoying a drink and a cigarette while dressed as a member of Rommel's Afrika Corps, complete with red swastika armband.

In a statement, Harry said: 'I am very sorry if I caused any offence or embarrassment to anyone. It was a poor choice of costume and I apologise.'

The Ministry of Defence insisted the incident would not affect Harry's place at Sandhurst military academy, which he is expected to take up in May.

The Duchess said she sympathised with the prince because she had made similar errors of judgment in the past.

She told a US TV channel: 'I know what it is like to have bad press - I had it for quite a long time.

'But Harry is a great boy, he really is. He is first rate. He does so much to help so many children all over the world.' However, her comments appeared to do little to calm the controversy.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, one of the largest international Jewish human rights organisations, said the prince should attend a ceremony at Auschwitz later this month to mark the 60th anniversary of the death camp's liberation by allied troops. In a strongly worded rebuke, the US-based centre added: 'This was a shameful act, displaying insensitivity for the victims, not just for those soldiers of his own country who gave their lives to defeat Nazism but to the Holocaust victims.'

Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom described Harry's use of Nazi symbols as intolerable. 'This can encourage others to think that perhaps that period was not as bad as we teach the young generation,' he said.

Prince Charles was reported to have privately berated Harry but told an aide his son did not need to grovel and apologise further. Charles was also said to feel Prince William should have stopped his brother from wearing the costume.