ANNA NICOLE SMITH - PATERNITY OF ANNA NICOLE BABY REMAINS SECRET

PATERNITY OF ANNA NICOLE BABY REMAINS SECRET

A court in the Bahamas is keeping mum over the paternity of the baby daughter of late US model Anna Nicole Smith.

The Nassau court had been expected to reveal the results of DNA tests, ordered by a judge to identify the father of six-month-old Dannielynn, yesterday.

But the results were not disclosed during yesterday's session and lawyers for both Smith's former boyfriend Larry Birkhead and her long-term partner Howard K Stern said that another court hearing had been scheduled for next Tuesday.

While both sides are restricted from disclosing details of the closed-door proceedings under Bahamian law, a legal representative for photographer Birkhead, who is challenging Stern for custody of Dannielynn, said that things had gone well for his client.

"Everything happened in his favour," attorney Emerick Knowles told reporters outside the court.

While the legal saga over the paternity of Dannielynn continues, US officials finally concluded last week that the death of the infant's mother in a Florida hotel room on February 8th was the result of an accidental overdose.

The daughter of Smith, a former Playboy playmate, could stand to inherit millions from the estate of her mother's late husband, J Howard Marshall II, the Texas oil tycoon who controversially married the model and reality TV star before his death in 1995.

While Smith's lawyer turned partner Stern is named as Dannielynn's father on the child's birth certificate, several men, including Birkhead, have publicly claimed to have fathered the child.