Prince Charles stakes claim for family job at the Commonwealth top table

The Prince of Wales used a speech at a dinner for Commonwealth heads of government Friday to make a pitch for himself as the Queen's eventual successor as head of the organisation. The Commonwealth's constitution does not specify that the headship of the 53-nation body should be hereditary, and some member states have suggested they might prefer an elected head to succeed the Queen.

The Prince, representing the Queen for the first time at a Commonwealth summit, clearly had the issue of succession in mind as he told delegates he had made 151 visits to Commonwealth countries, and had been "brought up in the family" of member states. Reminiscing about meetings with heads of state down the years, the Prince said he had been to 41 of the countries whose heads were at the dinner, going to many of them several times over.

He said: "I just wanted to say that the result of all this is that after all the years I feel very much part of the family.It's in my blood, I'm afraid. I have been brought up in the family and I think that what we are renewing here are those family ties, those family associations and family values. I feel proud and enormously privileged to be part of it all."

After a day of official meetings for the Prince and a historic trip to northern Sri Lanka for David Cameron, the delegates had a chance to relax at the black tie banquet in the Cinnamon Lakeside hotel in Colombo. The Prince greeted each president or prime minister as they arrived, together with the Duchess of Cornwall, wearing a turquoise chiffon beaded evening gown by Bruce Oldfield and a diamond tiara by the jewellers Boucheron.

Cameron was last to arrive, as he had been late for bilateral talks earlier with the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaska, after going to the north of the island to see for himself the extent of oppression against opponents of the regime. Cameron shook hands with Rajapaska and told him: "It was a very lively meeting. It's good to have these lively meetings. Right?"

As they took their places for the meal, the Prince sat between Rajapaska and the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, Denzil Llewellyn Douglas. Also on his table were the Sultan of Brunei and the presidents or prime ministers of Tanzania, Cyprus and Samoa. The Duchess sat between the Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, and the Malaysian premier Dato' Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak. St Lucia and Swaziland were also represented on her table, along with the first lady of Sri Lanka and the Commonwealth secretary-general, Kamalesh Sharma.

Commonwealth dinners traditionally mix the heads of larger and smaller member nations, and on Cameron's table were the delegates from South Africa, Papua New Guinea, The Bahamas, Sierra Leone and Pakistan. The menu included a grilled vegetable terrine to start, a main course of pan fried modha, a local fish, in hollandaise sauce, and a mango and chocolate parfait for dessert. The wine list included Camel Valley Brut from Cornwall and wines from New Zealand and South Africa. The heads of government drank the toast from silver gilt goblets, each one uniquely engraved with the crest of the appropriate member government.