THE QUEEN urged Prime Minister Tony Blair not to ban fox hunting, a new book has claimed.

The monarch reportedly attempted to impress upon the Labour leader the importance of hunting to rural communities, but to no avail.

Despite her pleas, the Hunting Bill passed through Parliament and was given Royal Assent – dividing opinion across the country.

In her book Elizabeth The Queen, biographer Sally Bedell Smith writes: "In her own quiet way, the Queen lobbied Blair during a weekend at Balmoral several years before the ban came to a vote.

"She patiently explained to him over dinner that hunting was an activity not only for the upper class but regular people as well." Some of the riders, she said, were far from well-off and rented their horses from livery stables.

Ms Bedell Smith, who has written previously about Princess Diana and the Kennedys, published her most recent book on Tuesday.

A spokesman for Buckingham Palace said the book had not been officially authorised by the palace and declined to comment. The Hunting Act 2004 came into effect on February 18, 2005.

It bans the hunting with dogs of all wild mammals in England and Wales, except where it is carried out in accordance with the conditions of one of the exemptions set out in the Act.

A person convicted of an offence under the Act risks a maximum fine of £5,000.

The court also has the power to make an order against a convicted person for the forfeiture of any relevant dog, vehicle or hunting article.