Charles Fails in Bid to Get His Diaries Back

Prince Charles failed in a legal bid on Tuesday to get back leaked copies of his diaries.

Prince Charles failed in a legal bid on Tuesday to get back leaked copies of his diaries, one of which, revealing indiscreet thoughts about the Chinese leadership, has already been published.

He won back his Hong Kong journal after his comments from it describing Chinese officials as "appalling old waxworks" were published by the Mail on Sunday.

But at the High Court on Tuesday he failed to obtain an immediate order that the paper should now hand back copies of seven other diaries.

Last December, three Appeal Court judges said the prince had an "overwhelming" human right to keep his holiday journals private .

However, Mr Justice Blackburne was told that the paper is awaiting the outcome of its petition to the House of Lords to mount an appeal against the earlier rulings against it.

On Tuesday, refusing to grant summary judgment -- judgment without the need for a fully contested hearing -- and order the immediate return of the other journals, the judge adjourned the case until May 21 to give the paper time to submit evidence and argue its case.

He also said that by then the House of Lords was likely to have decided whether to hear an appeal.

In the meantime Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Mail on Sunday, have undertaken not to publish details of the other seven journals without telling the Prince's lawyers first.

The Hong Kong diary was written during Charles' visit for the handover of the colony to the Chinese in 1997.

The Mail on Sunday had acquired copies of it via a leak from the prince's private office and published extracts in November 2005, just days after an official visit to Britain by Chinese President Hu Jintao.