buy the Princess hotel chain from the British group in a deal worth $550 million.

Saudi-owned newspaper, Al-Hayat, said Lonrho's Chief Executive Dieter Bock flew to Riyadh last week to discuss the sale with Al-Waleed.

Al-Waleed said he had been given "sole negotiation right'' to bid for the luxury hotel chain, which includes the Princess Hotel and the Southampton Princess in Bermuda.

"I will be the sole owner of Princess hotels,'' Al-Waleed told Al-Hayat. The prince did not rule out the possibility of other international investors joining him in the acquisition.

The prince said he expected the sale to be concluded by the end of October.

Al-Waleed, a nephew of Saudi King Fahd, said he would sell casinos operated by the Princess chain.

If the sale went through, Al-Waleed would ask Fairmont Hotel Management Ltd.

to manage the group.

Al-Waleed has a 50 percent stake in Fairmont. The rest is owned by the San Francisco-based Swig Investment.

Analysts say the prince can be a serious contender to buy the Princess chain because of his ability to easily attract capital.

The purchase would also dovetail with Al-Waleed's desire to strengthen his foothold in the US hotel market.

"He (Al-Waleed) has people to bankroll him and his ambitions,'' Nigel Utley, an analyst at Greig Middleton & Co., said last week.

Apart from the two Bermuda hotels, Princess comprises eight luxury resort hotels in the US, the Bahamas, Barbados and Mexico.

Lonrho recently abandoned plans to sell shares in the Princess and Metropole hotel chains.