Prince Harry's North Pole trek start delayed

The prince has been training on the island of Spitsbergen, between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole

The start of an Arctic trek by Prince Harry and four disabled servicemen has been hit by delays.

They had been due to fly to an ice airfield about 200 miles from the North Pole on Sunday, but gales have delayed the building of the runway.

The departure from the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen has been rescheduled to 1600 local time (1500 GMT) on Monday.

The prince is joining the first few days of the charity trek, aimed at raising £2m to help injured troops.

Harry, who is patron of the Walking With The Wounded charity, joined up with the trek team on Spitsbergen on Tuesday.

"We've spent plenty of days living on top of each other, so I feel like I'm one of the team now," he said.

The departure for Borneo Ice Airfield, where the airstrip is being built, had already been postponed from Friday.

Prince Harry will leave the team on Thursday, when he will be collected to return home to military commitments.

The four wounded soldiers have been training together for several months

The four servicemen, who were all injured in combat in Afghanistan, hope to enter the record books as the first disabled team to walk unassisted to the North Pole.

The mission, in temperatures reaching below minus-20C, is expected to take about four weeks.

The men are: Capt Martin Hewitt, 30, whose right arm is paralysed after being shot; Capt Guy Disney, 29, whose right leg was amputated below the knee after he was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG); Sgt Stephen Young, 28, who suffered a broken back in a roadside bombing; Pte Jaco Van Gass, 24, who had his left arm amputated and suffered significant tissue loss to his left leg after being hit by an RPG.

They will be joined by two charity founders, Simon Dalglish and Ed Parker, and polar guide Inge Solheim.