Prince Philip, 86, who entered hospital on Thursday with a chest infection, is hoping to fulfil his diary engagements next week, Buckingham Palace said on Saturday.

"There are some functions at Windsor on Monday and he is hoping to attend them," said a palace spokesman.

All the Duke of Edinburgh's official engagements for the weekend were cancelled after he was admitted to the King Edward VII Hospital in central London on Thursday.

He has been sitting up in bed working on his correspondence and making phone calls.

The blunt-talking prince has been a pivotal figure in the House of Windsor for more than four decades.

He has attracted unwelcome headlines over the past six months at the inquest into the death of his former daughter-in-law Princess Diana, who died in a 1997 Paris car crash with her lover Dodi al-Fayed.

Dodi's father, luxury storeowner Mohamed al-Fayed, alleges that his son and Diana were killed by British security services on the orders of Prince Philip.

Lord Justice Scott Baker, presiding judge at the inquest, said there was "not a shred of evidence" to back al-Fayed's conspiracy theories.

Over the years, Prince Philip has won notoriety for a string of gaffes on world tours.

He told British students in China: "If you stay here much longer, you'll be slitty-eyed." He asked Aborigines in Australia if they still threw spears at each other.