London: The owner of the Irish Daily Star says the newspaper's editor has been suspended following his decision to publish topless photographs of Prince William's wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge.

Independent Star, the company which owns the newspaper, said Monday that Michael O'Kane had been suspended and an internal inquiry had been launched.

The newspaper printed some of the photographs on Saturday in editions available in Ireland, but not inside the UK. The images were first published by French magazine Closer.

Ireland's justice minister Alan Shatter says he could revive previously abandoned plans for an Irish privacy law in response to the newspaper's actions. Some sections of the country's media could not distinguish between "prurient interest and the public interest," Shatter said.