Diana fountain competition launched

The fountain will be added to a memorial walk

LONDON, England -- Artists and craftsmen from around the world are being invited to take part in a competition to design a fountain in memory of Princess Diana.

The fountain will be built in a former pump house in London's Hyde park beside a lake that Diana often visited. It will be finished during the summer of 2003, planners say.

''This is a unique opportunity for artists and craftsmen to make history," Rosa Monckton, a friend of the late princess and head of the memorial fountain committee, told The Associated Press.

"It is so very important to make her national memorial very special, and that is why the competition for a design is going worldwide," she said.

The fountain, initially announced by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1999, will be paid for with public funds and by the sale of official commemorative coins.

Last year, a seven-mile commemorative walkway through the capital's Royal Parks and a memorial playground in Kensington Gardens were dedicated to Diana.

The fountain will be added to the memorial walk, which highlights buildings and locations associated with her.

"We are seeking to create a superb work of art, reflecting the public's emotional response to Diana in a unique location within the internationally famous Hyde Park," William Weston, chief executive of the Royal Parks Agency, told AP.

Diana died following a car crash in Paris in 1997.