Buckingham Palace has denied a newspaper's report that Prince Philip has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and says it was filing a complaint against the paper for breach of privacy.

In a statement, the palace said Prince Philip ''has authorised us to confirm that the claim made by the Evening Standard that he has received a diagnosis of prostate cancer is untrue''.

Citing anonymous medical sources, London's Evening Standard said the 87-year-old husband of the Queen had been diagnosed in April after tests conducted while he was in hospital for a chest infection.

The paper quoted a cancer specialist as saying, ''It's become an open secret within the medical community that Philip has prostate cancer.''

''If he'd had a serious chest infection that was so worrying it required hospitalisation, he wouldn't have walked in and out of there smiling and been 'sitting up in bed replying to letters,'' added the unnamed specialist.

Buckingham Palace said it was breaking a long-standing policy of not commenting on royal family members' health ''because the damaging story is now being reported widely''.

''We believe there has been a serious breach of the Duke of Edinburgh's right to privacy and we will be taking this issue to the Press Complaints Commission,'' the statement said.

''We will be asking the [commission] to remind all editors of their obligations.'' Prince Philip spent several days in the hospital with what officials said was a chest infection.

He has since accompanied the Queen on a series of trips and other duties, and royal officials said no changes had been made to his schedule for the near future.

A member of the Greek royal family, Prince Philip was evacuated from his home country by Britain's Royal Navy in 1922 after the abdication of King Constantine, his uncle.

Prince Philip and the Queen married in 1947, when she was still a princess and he was an officer in the Royal Navy.

He gave up his naval career when she became Queen and has since been her constant companion at public events. AP