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It's a diplomatic nightmare. The seating plan for the handover ceremonies is one of the more sensitive problems for organisers.

 With 4,000 guests, foreign ministers and representatives of more than 40 countries coming to witness the transfer of sovereignty, the possibility of seating adversaries together is high.

 So, organisers of the three-course Western-style banquet and handover ceremony have called in the protocol office for advice on drawing up the seating plan to avoid any tensions.

 VIPs attending the midnight handover ceremony were likely to be arranged in alphabetical order according to their nation, retiring protocol director Vivian Warrington disclosed yesterday.

 Mr Warrington refused to rule out the possibility Chinese and British leaders would be seated together at the banquet hosted in the Convention and Exhibition Centre extension.

 Asked whether officials from the nations which have often sparred over the future of Hong Kong would sit down together for the final meal, Mr Warrington said: 'I don't see why not.'  He said seating plans for the head table, expected to include Prince Charles, were still being worked out.

 The biggest problem had been the 'huge task' of fitting in 4,000 names.

 Mr Warrington, 62, a former RAF pilot and air commodore, retires from the post at midnight on June 30 after seven years' service.

 His temporary successor is understood to be Lillian Wong Tai Wai-yin, 45, a principal executive officer with the finance branch who has long experience working with the Legislative Council.

 He said the protocol office was expected to continue operating within the Special Administrative Region government after the handover although the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs office would also have its own division in the territory.

 Mr Warrington said VIP visits involving heads of state or government and foreign ministers would be more likely to involve more ceremony in Hong Kong under Chinese rule rather than the 'low-key' approach currently favoured by Britain.



Seating 4,000 without falling in the diplomatic soup