IANS

Los Angeles, Feb 23: A Florida judge has given custody of the body of Anna Nicole Smith to a guardian of her infant daughter Dannielynn and said she should be buried in the Bahamas.

"I want her buried with her son in the Bahamas," said Florida District Court Judge Larry Seidlin on Thursday, choking back tears. "I want them to be together."

The ruling prompted a dramatic press conference in which the competing sides pledged to cooperate to end the undignified struggle.

Seildin was referring to Smith's 20-year-old son Daniel, who died last year while visiting his mother after she gave birth to the girl in September in the Bahamas.

The ruling was the latest twist in the dramatic fight for control of Smith's body, and eventually her estate, which could yield millions of dollars if she wins her claim for a share of the 1.6-billion-dollar fortune of her former husband, oil tycoon J Howard Marshall.

The legal fight has resulted in a protracted delay in the burial of Smith, whose body is reportedly decomposing in the morgue of the Broward County Medical Examiner.

The drama continued after the ruling when the three parties to the case convened a chaotic press conference and pledged to cooperate in the funeral arrangements.

Seidlin had ordered the body released to Dannielynn's guardian Richard Millstein. But he also said he wanted to see her buried in the Bahamas and ordered Millstein to consult with the competing parties in the case.

These include Smith's estranged mother, her romantic companion Howard K Stern, who is listed as Dannielynn's father on the birth certificate, and photographer Larry Birkhead who also claims paternity of the child.

"Everyone is working together to arrange the details and hopefully it will turn into what it should be - a very private family matter," said Krista Barth, a lawyer for Stern.

"Anna deserves the rest and the privacy she sought," said Debra Opri, Birkhead's lawyer.

Smith died on February 8 at the age of 39 after collapsing in her hotel room in Hollywood, Florida.

The cause of death is still unclear, though there have been persistent reports of heavy drug use by the former model and reality TV personality.

The former Playboy centrefold rose to national fame when she married oil tycoon J Howard Marshall in 1994 when she was 26 and he was 89.

Marshall died in 1995 prompting a lengthy legal battle between his sons and Smith, which was unresolved at the time of her death.