Prince Harry drinks and dances in Belize as part of Diamond Jubilee tour

London, Mar 4 (ANI): Prince Harry, who was hoping to shed his playboy prince image on his first solo royal tour to the Caribbean, drank cocktails and danced with local lovelies as he attended a street party in Belmopan, the capital of Belize.

After joking that he had been told the third in line to the throne was "outgoing", the city's mayor insisted he tried every local brew from rum to lager, and quite a few other things in between, on a royal walkabout with a difference.

The 27-year-old Prince willingly obliged, before accepting an invitation from a Creole dancer to show off the skills he has honed in London's nightspots.

The Royal arrived in Belize for the first leg of a week-long tour of three Commonwealth realms as the Queen's representative in her Diamond Jubilee year.

The visit to Belize, the Bahamas and Jamaica, which will be followed by a trade mission to Brazil, represents a chance for the Prince to step out of his brother's shadow and show the world a more mature, sober side to his personality.

The people of Belmopan, however, only wanted the party-loving prince as they cheered his every step down a street he had just renamed HM Queen Elizabeth II Boulevard in his grandmother's honour.

Having gone through the traditional formalities of a meeting with the prime minister, Dean Barrow, and the Governor-General, Sir Colville Young, after landing in the former British Honduras, the Prince swapped his suit for a baggy Belizean Guayabera shirt and made his first official speech as the flag-bearer of the Queen of Belize, as she is correctly known here.

As he told a 2,000-strong crowd that he was sorry the Queen could not come and "you're stuck with me", the Prince dispensed with normal Royal protocol by replying to people in the road who shouted at him to speak up.

He even worked the crowd during the speech by telling people on one side of the street they were not as loud as the other, and urging them to make "a bit more noise" before telling them to "Mek wih go paaty" - or "let the party begin" in the Creole dialect.

The Prince, who has always had an informal, unbuttoned approach to royal duties, crouched down to chat to young children in the crowd before being ushered to a bar tent, where he puffed his cheeks and raised his eyebrows at the range of drinks on offer.

"It's the Governor-General's round," the Telegraph quoted him as saying.

As he watched a demonstration of a traditional Creole dance called a Brukdong Bram, he was invited to join in by one of the dancers, 36-year-old Denese Enriquez.

After feigning reluctance, the Prince enthusiastically showed off his natural rhythm as he twirled his new dance partner. (ANI)