Kate: I'll come back when I'm ready

Kate Moss will defy police demands to return to Britain to face allegations of drug-taking, insisting she is too busy working.

The 31-year-old is modelling in the U.S. and will come back only when her diary allows it, a source said yesterday.

If police want to force her back sooner, they would have to speak to her lawyers, one of the model's aides insisted.

On Wednesday, one of Scotland Yard's most senior officers issued a statement urging her to return home to answer allegations that she had snorted cocaine.

Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur said: 'We would like to appeal for her to return, see us and tell us her side of the story.

'The investigation is progressing very well and the Met is closing in on those who are behind the supply of drugs.

'But we have got to speak to Kate. I am making an appeal for Kate to come back to this country.'

Miss Moss has been abroad since a newspaper published photographs of her taking the drug with her then boyfriend Pete Doherty at a recording studio three months ago.

Police want to talk to the model about the allegations and have become increasingly frustrated at her refusal to return to Britain.

Soon after the pictures were published, she checked herself into a drug rehabilitation clinic in the U.S.

At the time her advisers said she would be home before Christmas, but instead opted to spend it skiing in Aspen, Colorado, where she showed off her new boyfriend - aspiring singer Jamie Burke.

It is thought she is keen to avoid the embarrassment of an arrest when she does come home.

And, even if she escapes with a caution, she fears it could affect her chances of working abroad, particularly in the U.S.

Miss Moss is now believed to be in Los Angeles, where she is renting a house with her threeyearold daughter.

Last night, a source close to the model said she still intends to return.

'She will come when she has time but she has two or three photoshoots to do first,' the source said.

'The police know who her lawyers are and if they want to force her to come back they will have to speak to them rather than the newspapers.

'You do have to ask yourself why, when there are so many terrible crimes out there, they seem to be concentrating on Kate Moss.

'You also have to ask herself whether, after this statement, she could ever have a fair trial.

'Kate has every intention of returning to Britain, which is her home, when she has a gap in her diary.'