Major in talks with Princess Diana

PATRICIA WYNN DAVIES

Political Correspondent

Expectations grew yesterday that the Government is trying to find a public role for the Princess of Wales after she held a one-hour meeting at Kensington Palace with John Major.

Yesterday's meeting comes within a month of the princess's plea in her controversial Panorama interview to become an "ambassador" for Britain.

Number 10 downplayed the meeting at the princess's home as "something the Prime Minister does every so often, about two or three times a year".

But while Downing Street and Buckingham Palace gave no details, political sources thought it inconceivable the princess's future had not come up.

The meeting with the Prime Minister came two days after the princess announced that she would not, as originally planned, spend Christmas with the Queen, her estranged husband and two sons and other members of the Royal Family at Sandringham.

That latest example of the princess distancing herself from the rest of Royal Family has fuelled calls by Prince Charles's supporters and senior Tory MPs for a speedy divorce.