BELGIAN police pulled a member of the Bahraini royal family off an airliner, detained and questioned him, his lawyer said yesterday. His French lawyer told Reuters that Fawaz Abdullah , head of the private office of the king of Bahrain, had been in Belgium for business when the incident occurred.

The Bahraini royal family has almost 3,000 members. Mohammed al-Khalifa was interrogated "like a criminal" for several hours before being allowed to continue his journey. The Kortrijk public prosecutor's office said an investigation was under way and he could not comment. The Belgian Foreign Ministry denied there had been any incident involving a Bahraini official. ?We have no indication of an incident with a diplomat, senior civil servant or politician from Bahrain?, said a foreign ministry spokesman.