Hoping for a granddaughter: Prince Charles

London: Prince Charles, who is set to become a grandfather again with Prince William and Kate Middleton expecting their second child, has said he is hoping it will be a girl this time.

The heir to the throne told a 100-year-old military veteran at Windsor Castle that he hoped his second grandchild, already overdue and destined to be a May baby, would be a girl during banter about the difficulties of having a daughter.

Eric Jones, the oldest surviving member of the Welsh Guards, introduced his daughter Lynda Bateman when the Prince asked how many girls he had, said: "One ? and that's enough."

In reply, Charles, 66, was quoted by the Daily Express as saying, "And we're hoping for a granddaughter!"

Charles was with his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, at Windsor Castle where she was?presenting new colours to the 1st battalion Welsh Guards.

Jones, from Merthyr Tydfil, said Prince Charles was "very down to Earth, one of the boys."

"I thought it was wonderful. It was nice he felt he could tell me how he felt," he said.

Bateman, 70, also from Merthyr Tydfil said: "We'd been introduced to the Queen and Prince Philip and then someone approached us saying that Prince Charles wanted to meet my father."

"He (Charles) said my father was looking well and asked how many daughters he had. My dad said, 'just the one and that's enough'," Bateman said.

"We all laughed and Prince Charles said, 'we're hoping for a granddaughter this time'.

"I couldn't believe it when he said it. Prince Charles and Camilla were so nice and made my dad feel very special," she said.

Kate is now believed to be over a week overdue and her second baby is due any time now.

Meanwhile, royal fans are keeping up their vigil outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital in central London.

Every false alarm and rumour sweeping the world via the internet is prompting a wave of panic among the media pack waiting outside the private Lindo Wing where the Duchess of Cambridge is due to give birth to her second child.

There was a sighting of a blacked out Range Rover flanked by police outriders near the hospital that proved to be nothing.

A similar report of a convoy of cars leaving Kensington Palace prompted one television news channel to send a helicopter into the air, leading journalists on the ground to think this must be it.

However, the wait continued.