Ankara - Turkey's minister for women's affairs on Monday lashed out at a British television documentary in which the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, bluffed her way into state-run orphanages in Turkey and reported being disgusted by conditions there.

Women's Affairs Minister Nimet Cubukcu said the reports, which showed Ferguson entering the orphanages without permission, had damaged diplomatic relations. Cubukcu disputed Ferguson's claims and said the orphanages in question were open to visits by diplomats and non-governmental charities.

"It is very clear that Mrs Sarah Ferguson has bad intentions. In the run-up to Turkey's EU Progress Report being announced, due to her being against our EU membership and her calls of 'don't go to Istanbul as a tourist', she is obviously in a campaign to blacken Turkey's name," Cubukcu told reporters in Ankara on Monday.

In a documentary to be screened in Britain later this week, Ferguson disguises herself in a wig and headscarf and, along with British journalist Chris Rogers, bluffs her way into orphanages in Istanbul and Ankara to secretly record footage of scenes that Rogers described in the British Daily Mail newspaper as "horrific".

"Dressed in bedclothes and rags, some had shaven heads - which gave them the appearance of convicts rather than patients. In every corner, a child showed signs of distress, with many exhibiting the awful violent rocking of the institutionalized," Rogers said.

The documentary is to be aired in Britain later this week.

Cubukcu said Ferguson had tried to create "resentment" by secretly filming inside the orphanages and expressed regret that Turkish media had repeated the claims made in the documentary.

The minister said there would be an investigation into the documentary's claims. (dpa)