On the eve of the Peat report, Charles slips out of Britain

Packed into 100 pages of dense text after four months of diplomatic digging by a senior lawyer and top royal servant, the Peat report will be required reading for anyone with a passing interest in the monarchy. Apart, it seems, from the man who commissioned it.

When the long-awaited inquiry into issues arising from the collapsed trials of the two royal butlers is published tomorrow, Prince Charles will be 1,250 miles away, having breakfast with the King of Bulgaria. His two-day trip to the country, which officials said was long planned, comes at a highly convenient time for the heir to the throne.

The report by Sir Michael Peat, the prince's private secretary and most senior aide, is unlikely to name individuals in its quest to get to the bottom of alleged murky conduct in the prince's household.

But despite fears that the inquiry will be a whitewash, it will still raise uncomfortable questions on matters from the sale of royal gifts to an alleged cover up of a claim of male rape. St James's Palace said yesterday that Charles would not be breaking off his engagements in Sofia to respond to the findings. A spokesman said: "It would not be appropriate when on a royal visit to do anything other than to concentrate on the visit and our hosts."

The silence from the Balkans will do little to quell interest in the Peat findings, which were originally due to be published in December. Publication has been postponed twice. Sir Michael was ordered to conduct the inquiry following the acquittal last November, after the personal intervention of the Queen, of Paul Burrell on charges of stealing from the prince and Diana, Princess of Wales.

Amid calls for a public inquiry and pressure from Buckingham Palace for a full investigation, Charles ordered instead an internal review of procedures and standards in his household. The inquiry has not looked at the role of the Queen in the Burrell case.

At the centre of the report, which was conducted with the help of Edmund Lawson QC, who has been paid £75,000 for his services, will be a new code of conduct governing the activities of servants at St James's Palace. It is expected to be critical of the practice of "gifting", under which official presents and tokens given to the prince were passed on to members of staff to be sold on, cropping up on internet auctions and in the stock of royal memorabilia traders.

Horse-trading is thought to be continuing until the last minute over who, if anyone, should take the blame for the practice. Speculation surrounds the future of Michael Fawcett, the prince's closest servant, known as "Fawcett the Fence" for his claimed role as distributor of the gifts in return for a share of the proceeds.

The prince, who was also questioned for the report, is said to have been resisting a recommendation from Sir Michael that Mr Fawcett, who has been on paid leave following the allegations about his conduct, should leave the royal household.

Newspapers said last weekend that Mr Fawcett had received offers of £1m from two tabloids in return for his story.