P Diddy sued by publisher

Rap mogul Sean 'P Diddy' Combs has been accused of failing to pay back a $300,000 (€230,000) advance for a memoir he never completed.

In papers filed on Monday at the state Supreme Court in Manhattan, New York, publisher Random House Inc alleges that Combs and his corporation, Bad Boy, have "simply kept the money they never rightfully earned".

Random House is seeking the advance's return, plus interest.

The publisher says in a statement: "Random House has seldom resorted to a legal course of action with its prospective authors who don't write the books we have contracted for, but Mr Sean Combs has left us no choice.

"He signed an agreement with our Ballantine imprint in 1998 to write his autobiography, which he agreed to complete and deliver to us in 1999. We now have waited for over five years and have received neither the manuscript nor the return of the money we advanced Mr Combs."

Combs' publicist, Rob Shuter, says: "(There was a) disagreement with Random House that we hoped would be resolved without litigation. We anticipate that this will be resolved quickly."