Pregnant Spanish princess admitted to clinic

MADRID - Princess Letizia, the future queen of Spain who is eight months pregnant, was admitted to a Madrid clinic early on Tuesday after suffering "discomfort", a source at the Royal Palace said.

The princess of Asturias has been placed under medical observation, the source said.

State radio said Letizia had gone to the clinic, accompanied by her husband, Prince Felipe, after feeling some contractions.

It said Queen Sofia was going ahead with a visit to Guatemala, where she was due to arrive later on Tuesday.

The Palace announced in May that Letizia was pregnant with her first child, due in November.

A glamorous former television presenter, Letizia Ortiz married Felipe in May 2004, and news of a pregnancy had been eagerly awaited in Spain.

The wedding of Felipe to Letizia, a divorcee, symbolised a new dawn for Spain just over two months after the March 11 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people.

If the royal couple were to have a girl, she could be the first Spanish princess to have the same right as a boy to accede to the throne.

The Socialist government is looking into changing the law under which male children take precedence in the succession to the throne.

- REUTERS