End of the pink gin set: UK embassies in Washington and Paris could be sold

Washington and Paris are among the prestigious embassies that face being sold by mandarins who have been ordered to trim millions from ambassadorial budgets by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Diplomats will instead have to rent more modest office buildings, putting an end to their "pink gin" lifestyle.

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The proposals mean the dismantling of Britain's foreign embassy estate, which also includes hundreds of homes for diplomats and other staff.

Savings will help pay for the Foreign Office's spiralling security costs and massive spending on diplomatic efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They will also help the FO meet Treasury warnings that traditionally "excessive" high living will no longer be tolerated.

Large numbers of embassies and ambassadors' residences have already been earmarked, according to internal Foreign Office papers.

Sir Andrew Noble, the head of the FO's Security Strategy Unit, is heading the property review.

The Washington embassy is worth £100million and is set on four prime acres. It is not known if the ambassador's residence, which was built in 1928 and designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, also faces being sold off.

Britain's embassy in Paris is a former palace on the highly fashionable Rue du Faubourg St Honoré, a short stroll from the Champs-Elysées and worth £50million.

It is considered more impressive than the nearby Elysée Palace, the official residence of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Also under threat are the grand residences of the High Commissioner to South Africa, the former Labour Cabinet minister Paul Boateng.

One is in Pretoria, on a hill overlooking the city. The other is a £5million house in Cape Town that is a venue for lavish garden parties.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman confirmed the FO was reviewing its foreign estates to ensure they were "fit to meet the needs of the 21st Century".

She added: "Large-scale sales have not been ruled out."