The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, London

Prince Charles, who has just turned 60, wants to break with tradition and keep speaking out on key issues when he becomes king, biographer Jonathan Dimbleby said in The Sunday Times.

Charles, the heir to the throne, is outspoken on several matters such as climate change and architecture. However, sovereigns traditionally keep their opinions out of the public domain.

"There are now discreet moves afoot to redefine the future role of the sovereign so that it would allow King Charles III to speak out on matters of national or international importance in ways that at the moment would be unthinkable," said broadcaster Dimbleby, a close friend of the prince who wrote an authorised biography of Charles.

Since inheriting the throne in 1952, Charles's mother Queen Elizabeth II has adhered to the tradition that the monarch's views are only heard by prime ministers and the privy council.

"To breach this convention, however cautiously, would represent a seismic shift in the role of the sovereign," Dimbleby wrote.

"It has the potential to be politically and constitutionally explosive."

Charles would not speak out to the degree he does now, Dimbleby said.

"But those who believe Britain needs an 'active' sovereign in the 21st century claim that it would be a waste of his experience and accumulated wisdom for it to be straightjacketed within the confines of an annual Christmas message or his weekly audience with the prime minister," he wrote.

Charles has told confidantes that he would like the role of monarch to evolve so that his experience and knowledge are not wasted once he inherits the throne, Dimbleby said.

Supporters of the idea think it would be "missing a trick for him to be required to take a vow of monarchical silence."