Gordon Brown pledged he would make it "possible" for the Queen or any other member of the royal family to attend next weekend's official D-Day commemorations in France if they wished to be present.
There will be no royal representation at the events to mark the 65th anniversary of the Normandy landings after no invitation was received from the French authorities.
Instead the Prime Minister will represent the UK alongside British veterans who took part in the 1944 invasion that helped defeat Hitler's Germany.
The absence of the Queen from the guest list for the commemorations has been perceived by some as a deliberate snub, though Buckingham Palace has stressed the monarch is not upset about the situation.
Mr Brown was asked on BBC1's Andrew Marr show if the situation was a "disgrace".
He said Buckingham Palace had its own statements on the matter, adding: "I have simply done what is my duty as a Prime Minister - I have accepted the personal invitation of (French president) Mr (Nicolas) Sarkozy.
"I think you know that Mr (Stephen) Harper, the Canadian prime minister, is going, and I think in these circumstances, this particular event was one that the president wanted to be for prime ministers and presidents.
"But if the Queen wanted to attend these events, or if any member of the Royal family wanted to attend these events, I would make that possible."
Officials in Paris have insisted the Queen is welcome and blamed the UK Government for deciding who should attend what they said was "primarily a Franco-American ceremony".
Commentators have suggested that Mr Sarkozy is primarily interested in hosting the visit of US president Barack Obama to next week's events in Normandy.
