A palace source announced on Sunday that an inquiry has been launched into how "The Sun" acquired the film. Depending on the outcome of the investigation, issues of copyright and criminality will be considered.

"It is disappointing that film, shot eight decades ago and apparently from Her Majesty's personal family archive, has been obtained and exploited in this manner," a palace spokesperson said.

A black and white still, taken from the video, hit the front page of "The Sun" on Saturday. The paper ran the story under the headline, "Their royal heilnesses."

Obtained in a 'legitimate fashion'

During the original 17-second video clip, filmed in the gardens of Balmoral Castle, the future Queen, who was aged just 6 or 7 at the time, is shown raising her right arm with the Queen Mother and her uncle the Prince of Wales. The prince later ascended to the throne in 1936 as King Edward VIII but abdicated within a year, after controversially choosing to marry US divorcee Wallis Simpson.

"The Sun" has not revealed how it came to obtain the footage, but managing editor, Stig Abell, said it was obtained "in a legitimate fashion" and that its publication was "not a criticism of the Queen or the Queen Mum."

Nazi sympathy

Speculation over Edward's links to the Nazi regime is well-known among historians and the public. The former monarch has often been accused of sympathizing with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Some historians have even suggested that, had Hitler successfully invaded England during the Second World War, the dictator was prepared to reinstate Edward as king in the hope of establishing a fascist Britain.

Royal war effort

A royal source said on Saturday, however, that given the Queen's young age in 1933 or 1934 when the footage was filmed, she would have been "entirely innocent of attaching any meaning to these gestures."

The film should be seen "in their proper context and time," the source added, considering that in 1933, no one knew of the atrocities with which the "Nazi salute" would become associated.

"The queen and her family's service and dedication to the welfare of this nation during the war and the 63 years the queen has spent building relations between nations and peoples speaks for itself," the source said.

Just last month, the queen paid her respects at Bergen-Belsen concentration during a state visit to Germany. Some 52,000 people died there under the control of the Nazis.

ksb/sms(AFP, dpa)