UK's Prince William ends Seychelles holiday

VICTORIA, Aug 24 (Reuters) Britain's Prince William has left the Seychelles after a week-long holiday with Kate Middleton at an exclusive island resort, a local airport official said today.

The holiday reports prompted media speculation the two were an item again just a few months after splitting up and that an engagement was looming.

Prince William and Middleton, both 25, had checked in at a hotel on Desroches island as Martin and Rosemary to conceal their identities, British media reported.

An airport official told Reuters he saw Prince William accompanied by two people when he left on board an Air Seychelles flight for London yesterday afternoon.

''At least one of them was a bodyguard,'' the official said, declining to be named, saying he did not know who the third was because his view was obscured.

The Seychelles government has ordered local media not to report on the two and arrested three British photographers on Wednesday after they had hired a boat in an attempt to get paparazzi snaps.

Authorities said the journalists had no accreditation.

''We have a duty to protect the privacy of our visitors,'' Glenny Savy, chief executive officer of the Island Development Company, which owns the resort, told local media.

In July, popular British tabloid The Sun reported that Prince William, second in line to Britain's throne, had persuaded his long-term girlfriend Kate to get back together again, 12 weeks after the couple split.

After meeting at university, the couple had ended their four-year relationship in April amid reports army officer William did not want to get married yet and that constant media attention was taking its toll on their private life.

Reporting that Desroches is famous as a honeymooners' paradise, the Sun said: ''William and Kate exchanged glances and both had huge smiles on their faces.'' REUTERS PD RK2018