For more than a decade, the vastly rich Sultan of Brunei and his youngest brother Prince Jefri have entertained the world with a hugely acrimonious - and colourful - feud in which the Sultan accused the Prince of misappropriating more than £9 million of state funds.

But now, at long last, it seems the two brothers have kissed and made up. After a five-year absence from the oil-rich state, Prince Jefri has finally gone home. Last week, I learn, he attended prayers with his brother at a local mosque.

In the late Nineties, dapper Prince Jefri Bolkiah was accused of spending enormous sums of money from the royal treasury on a profligate lifestyle of luxury cars, jewellery, mansions and yachts - including the outrageously named SS Tits, with tenders entitled Nipple One and Nipple Two.

As a result, the Prince, 55, was stripped of his title as Brunei's finance minister. He subsequently embarked on a long-running legal battle with the Sultan over control of his assets.

His return comes after he expressed fears last year that he could be charged with treason if he went back to Brunei, and for the past 15 months the Prince has also been a fugitive from the UK, facing arrest here for failing to appear at a High Court hearing, which could have landed him in jail.

'It's fair to say there's a much more constructive relationship between the parties,' says the Prince's lawyer David Sandy.

The settlement is timely for the Sultan. Later this week, Prince Jefri is due to give a deposition to a New York Court relating to another case involving his former lawyers.

The Prince, I am told, was planning to reveal embarrassing information about his brother. Sources close to Prince Jefri suggest this is the motivation behind the rapprochement between the siblings.

Jefri has always denied the allegations against him, claiming he was a fall-guy. He also says he has sold most of his assets - including the Bel-Air hotel in Los Angeles and the New York Palace Hotel - in order to repay the money.

But the truce is sad news for lawyers, as the feud has been the most expensive in British legal history. City law firms, notably Freshfields, have acknowledged that they have charged hundreds of millions of pounds in a case that has covered three continents over 11 years.