Bucharest, Oct 01: The Romanian government has announced it had opened an inquiry into the "illegal" wedding of Ana-Maria, a gypsy "princess" aged 12-and-a-half who married a 15-year-old Rom in a lavish ceremony at Sibiu in Central Romania. Saturday's wedding "is not recognised by the Romanian authorities and we have opened an inquiry to see how this union between minors was possible," government official Serban Mihailescu said yesterday.

The self-proclaimed king of the gypsies, Florin Cioaba, hid the real age of his daughter Ana-Maria when he married her off to a 15-year-old boy. The bridegroom, Birita, is the son of a wealthy gypsy family to whom Ana-Maria had been promised for 500 gold coins when she was seven years old. They were married before more than 200 guests in a Pentecostal Church and the bride wore a tiara and white silk and lace dress by an Italian designer, but observers thought she looked sad.

"Ana-Maria did not have any say over this marriage. It is something that was decided when she was seven," her aunt Luminita Cioaba, told a news agency.

"Sometimes the gypsy traditions are very hard, even unfair," she added. The single Rom member of Parliament, Madalin Voicu, told journalists late yesterday that the wedding was an "affront" to the gypsy community, saying: "a 12-year-old child cannot understand the notion of marriage and the duties appertaining to it."

Bureau Report