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A royal wedding between Malaysia's most eligible bachelor and the daughter of a prominent English lawyer has caught the country by surprise, forcing politics and religious differences off front pages.

Oxford- and Harvard-educated Raja Nazrin,  50, the crown prince of the Perak royal house,  is marrying Zara Salim Davidson,  34, a chemical engineer  who runs her own oil and gas consultancy.

Under Malaysia's rotating monarchy, Raja Nazrin is next in line to rule the house and due to become king in about 10 years. Ms Davidson is  the grandniece of  the first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman.

Her father is expatriate lawyer William Davidson,  who worked in Hong Kong for five years before moving to Malaysia in 1964.

The first sign that something was brewing in the publicity-shy Perak royal house was when large, ornate tents appeared outside the palace in Kuala Kangsar,  the royal town about 200km from Kuala Lumpur.

On Monday a terse, five-paragraph palace statement announced that Raja Nazrin, who is known for championing  environmental causes, would wed on May 17.

But  it did not name the bride and the omission set off a media frenzy to identify  her.

Yesterday, the face of  Ms Davidson, 34,  was on the front page of every newspaper in the country.

'The people are excited by the marriage. It will lift the dreary mood,   unite the people and shift the focus from religious and political differences,' said Kula Segaran,  opposition  MP for Ipoh,  the capital of Perak state.

'The people are happy because Raja Nazrin's views of Malaysian society are very progressive,'  he said. 'He can unify the people.'

Some Malaysians said they were elated that Raja Nazrin was ending his bachelorhood.

'He was already 50 years old and it is  time he got  married,' said Agnes Radhi, a nurse. 'A ruler needs a consort.'

Ms Davidson, a Muslim, graduated in chemical engineering from Nottingham University in 1995 and  worked for Petronas, the national oil corporation, before setting up her own firm.

She is the youngest of four children of   Mr Davidson and Sharifah Azaliah.

The wedding ceremony will stretch over three days, palace officials said.

In a society divided by race and religion, Raja Nazrin had in recent months urged Malaysians to defend the secular constitution and its bill of fundamental rights.

'Islamic intolerance and extremism has no place in a multi-ethnic society,' he told a unity conference last month, winning accolades from both Muslims and non-Muslims.



Malaysians finally learn who prince's fiancee is