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He is surrendering his honors, including the York's Duke, he has announced in a personal statement.

He has been under increasing scrutiny over his connections with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, with requests for the Palace to take measures against him.

That now looks to have led to the royal deciding to voluntarily give up his designations and to relinquish participation of the Order of the Garter.

In his message he said he continued to "firmly refute the claims against me".

"In consultation with the sovereign, and my immediate and broader family, we have decided the ongoing accusations about me take away from the duties of His Majesty and the monarchy," said a announcement from Prince Andrew.

"I have opted, as I always have, to put my obligation to my family and country first.

"I stand by my choice five years ago to withdraw from public life.

"With the King's consent, we believe I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the awards which have been granted to me. As I have said earlier, I vigorously dispute the allegations against me."

Prince Andrew has been involved in a range of scandals, among them a legal case he ended with an accuser, questions about his economic affairs and his association with an accused intelligence operative.

He will remain a member of royalty - but will cease to be the York's Duke, a title received from his mother, the Queen Elizabeth II.

He had already ended to be a "participating figure" and had given up the use of his HRH title and no longer was seen at public engagements. His status now will be even more diminished.

His previous partner will be known as Sarah and no longer York's Duchess, but their offspring will persist to have the title of royal princess.

He has been under severe attention over his links with notorious figure Epstein, more recently including questions about when he had truly ended contact.

In his media discussion, the royal had said that he had severed all connections with Epstein after they had been pictured together in New York in late 2010.

But correspondence sent in February 2011 later emerged indicating that the prince had privately continued in touch with Epstein, such as sending a message: "Keep in close touch and we'll meet again soon!"

There had been mounting frustration in the monarchy at the issues that remained to plague the figure.

Next week a posthumous memoir by Virginia Giuffre will be published which is expected to cast further scrutiny on Prince Andrew's association with Ms Giuffre and the financier.