Jane Hughes reports on the Kennedy auction (2'11")

Plans to auction items which once belonged to the late US President John F. Kennedy have led to a dispute involving members of the Kennedy family.

As organisers made final preparations for the sale on Wednesday, talks continued between representatives of Robert White, the Maryland collector selling the bulk of the possessions, and JFK's children, who are seeking the return of some "intensely personal" objects.

"There are ongoing, current discussions trying to negotiate a settlement between Mr White and the Kennedy family members," said Mr White's lawyer, Robert Adler.

The president's last will, drawn up in 1960

Guernsey's auction house expects thousands of Kennedy buffs to bid for more than 500 lots, including campaign trinkets, photographs, party invitations, clothes, furniture and a sailing boat.

In a statement on Monday, the Kennedy children asked that some of the most historically and personally valuable items be returned to the family and the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.

Those items include a Saint Christopher medal money clip, two handwritten journals kept by JFK and correspondence between the president and his wife.

Mr White has already removed seven lots from the auction, including a writing desk used by Kennedy and six sets of documents, under a negotiated agreement with the National Archives and Records Administration.

John F. Kennedy: close to his secretary

Mr Adler said the government claimed some of the items endangered national security, while others were believed to belong to the American people.

The conflict between the Kennedys and White has cast a new light on the role played by President Kennedy's long-time personal secretary, the late Evelyn Norton Lincoln, who for years has been portrayed as fiercely loyal to the president and his memory.

The murdered president's children, Caroline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Junior, said that loyalty was betrayed with her collection of their father's personal items, which Mrs Lincoln bequeathed to Mr White upon her death in 1995.

Mrs Lincoln and Mr White were close friends who shared a passionate interest in Kennedy memorabilia.

Various letters, photographs and personal items will be sold

"Mrs Lincoln breached both the public trust and that of our family," the Kennedys said. "The number of items she took for herself, and the intensely personal character of many of them, is overwhelming.

"It appears she even went so far as to keep for herself the briefcase and watch that were with our father at the time of his death."

Mr Adler said Mr White was upset by "the attack on Mrs Lincoln, who served JFK and later the Kennedy family for many years with love and devotion."

Arlen Ettinger, President of Guernsey's, said: "It is disappointing that the Kennedy children have chosen unnecessarily to sully the name and image of a woman like Evelyn Lincoln who was so dedicated to their father and who was so dear to both of their parents."

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