Organisers of the Miss World pageant have denied the beauty contest was responsible for sparking riots which left hundreds dead in Nigeria.

Julia Morley blamed an article written by a Nigerian journalist for inflaming the situation, and said the contest was frequently used as a "political football".

Dozens of beauty queens have arrived in London for the 2002 contest, after the venue was hastily switched due to the violence.

The search is now on for a new venue for the televised pageant which is scheduled to take place on 7 December.

'Journalist's mistake'

Mrs Morley told news conference in London on Monday it had not been a mistake to hold the contest in Nigeria.

"What was a mistake was a journalist making a remark he shouldn't have made," she said.

She was referring to a newspaper column in Nigeria in which a Christian journalist wrote that the Muslim prophet Mohammed might have chosen a Miss World contestant as a bride.

The rioting began with a protest by Muslims in Kaduna last Wednesday over the article, which they saw as trivialising their objections to the contest.

By Friday the trouble had spread to the Nigerian capital Abuja.

Thousands have fled from their homes

Mrs Morley said: "I am sad about the riots. But does that mean you can't go anywhere in the world just because there might be a riot?

"Miss World can be used as a political football, sometimes in the name of religion, but usually for politics, if someone has an election coming up.

"It isn't the fault of the girls or any of us."

She said the event had received offers from a number of venues, including Wembley Arena and Alexandra Palace in north London, but a decision had yet to be reached.

Death toll

Latest figures released by the Nigerian Red Cross put the number of dead from four days of unrest in the northern city of Kaduna at 215 - more than doubling the previous estimate.

Nigeria won the right to stage the pageant after Nigerian Agbani Darego was crowned Miss World 2001 - the first black African to win the title.

Ben Maray, the chairman of the Nigerian organising committee, said a huge opportunity to showcase Nigeria had been lost.

The Lagos-based ThisDay newspaper, which published the article, retracted and repeatedly apologised for offending Muslims.

The paper's editor has been detained by police.