Paris Hilton breaks off engagement

WASHINGTON - Paris Hilton is breaking off her five-month-old engagement with tycoon fiancé Paris Latsis because "I feel I'm just not ready for marriage," the actress and hotel heiress said on Sunday through a spokesman.

"I have seen the breakups between people who love each other and rush into getting married too quickly and I do not want to make that mistake," Hilton said in a statement provided by Los Angeles-based spokesman Elliot Mintz.

Hilton, 24, announced the engagement with 26-year-old Paris Latsis, also known as Paris Kasidokostas and heir to a billion-dollar fortune based on Greek shipping and oil, in May.

"I'm still young and have a very active career that I'm not prepared to give up. I've worked very hard to get to where I am. Paris is a great guy and we will handle this with dignity and respect.

"I love Paris. He is my best friend and it will be that way forever. This man treated me as no man ever has. We will also be business partners and have movies in the works," the statement said.

Hilton said last month in an interview in Vanity Fair that she was looking forward to settling down and was thinking about having a baby. She rejected his first engagement ring because the diamond was yellow, so another 24-carat emerald-cut diamond ring estimated to cost $2 million had been ordered.

The couple had planned two weddings -- one in Los Angeles where she lives and another in Greece -- but had set no date.

Hilton, a model who has acted in movies and on television, won unwanted fame after former boyfriend Rick Salomon released a sex tape made when she was 19. The tape, which appeared on the internet in 2003, later landed in stores with the title, "1 Night in Paris."

- REUTERS