Cllr Margaret Smith takes a companion on foreign trips

Over the past two years Lesley Baird, a former social worker who lives near Glasgow, has accompanied the provost on trips to the USA and Japan.

The 50-year-old is said to have been a close friend of the provost for years.

Before vacating the chair for the debate, Cllr Smith accused the local media of conducting a personal vendetta against her.

She also urged the council not to make it a personal debate about her.

Cllr Smith said: "You will debate this as a matter for a provost, a provost's work and a provost's need for support during that work."

'Contempt'

Opposition councillors said Aberdeen's rules were out of date and out of step with other Scottish cities.

They accused the city's Labour group of treating the public with contempt.

It has cost the tax payer �34,000 for Lesley Baird's trips

Irene Cormack, of the Liberal Democrats, said: "This particular issue has given rise to such a level of public participation and condemnation that only an arrogant or indifferent administration could possibly ignore it and the radical change which we propose."

But Labour won the vote to leave the rules unchanged.

In Edinburgh, all overseas trips by the lord and lady provost must be approved by the council executive.

The procedure also allows the executive to authorise the lady provost to undertake official engagements overseas on her own where the visit is considered to be in the interests of the council.

In Glasgow all overseas visits by the lord provost have to be approved by the council's hospitality sub-committee, and in Dundee all overseas visits by the lord and lady provost have to be approved by the council.