Jaguar, the prestige carmaker, refused Wednesday to comment on reports that a swastika and a cache of pornographic magazines were found in Queen Elizabeth's new car.

The magazines were deposited in a sealed compartment while the swastika was painted behind a seat panel. Both were found by workers when the car was being made bomb-proof in Coventry, news media reported.

The "factory extras" normally would not have been discovered except for the fact that several panels were removed to allow for the bomb-proofing, The Guardian said.

A worker at the Coventry plant, where the car was made, has agreed to resign over the incident, the newspaper said.

A Jaguar employee told The Guardian: "It is one of those old traditions where people used to write things behind the seat panel of cars and they were never discovered unless there was an accident. But, on this occasion, it was not very funny."

The man said the tradition was common practice when he was an apprentice: "The chaps go to an awful lot of trouble to do the car. They're there all day; what else have they got to do?"

Buckingham Palace said it was up to Jaguar, not the palace, to comment on the incident.