Police are currently trying to determine whether the image is real or doctored.

Police Colonel Yannaphol Yangyuen said the authorities would determine who first released the image within the next few days.

The officer said it had not been determined whether the image had been doctored, but he personally thought it was probably authentic.

The image was first seen when posted on popular community website www.pantip.com under a thread entitled "Crown Prince Jigme's girlfriend, from the Bhutan paparazzi" at about 5pm last Friday.

He said the website had since removed the image and insisted it had not been posted on any other threads.

Yannaphol, head of the Information Technology Division under the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), said the individual would face criminal charges of libel if the image was found to have been doctored.

"Please stop distributing the image, or you risk facing criminal charges. Actions are being taken without any formal requests that might possibly be made by Bhutan," he said.

Maj-General Prachin Waree, a deputy chief of the police Information Technology and Communications Bureau, said electronically-based examination was underway to locate the person who first released the image.

"This may violate the crown prince's reputation. It requires thorough and careful examination to work this out," he said.

Before the image was removed, the thread in question drew a large number of replies from Thai netizens, mostly criticising the posting, saying it could sour bilateral relations between Thailand and Bhutan should the image be a fake.

Local netizens have discussed the motivations behind the posting widely, and the image itself, on other community websites, mostly criticising the posting on the grounds the popular prince was a Royal guest of His Majesty the King and it was inappropriate to publish the image, regardless of whether it was authentic or fabricated.

Many offered their opinion of the image, slamming it as a fake, because the Chinese-looking woman in the image was dressed in a halter top and the background image resembled the Bhutanese countryside and the Kingdom is a very cold place.