Miss California pageant chief resigns 

Source: ReutersMiss North Carolina Kristen Dalton (L) reacts with Miss California Carrie Prejean as Dalton is announced as Miss America 2009

The co-director of the Miss California USA beauty pageant has resigned in protest over Carrie Prejean being allowed to keep her crown despite a furore over topless photos and anti-gay marriage views.

Shanna Moakler's decision came the day after Miss USA and Miss Universe pageant owner Donald Trump ended weeks of speculation over the future of Prejean, the current Miss California, saying she could retain her title - and her opinions.

Moakler, a former Miss USA title holder and a supporter of gay marriage, said in a statement she "cannot with a clear conscious move forward supporting and promoting the Miss Universe Organization when I no longer believe in it, or the contracts I signed committing myself as a youth."

The Miss California story has been a talking point across the United States at a time of heated debate over same-sex marriages which have recently been legalised in five states.

Prejean, 21, made headline news last month at the Miss USA pageant when she expressed her opposition to gay marriage in answer to a question from gay judge and celebrity blogger Perez Hilton. She claimed her answer cost her the Miss USA title.

Prejean has since appeared in an anti-gay marriage ad and several pictures of her posing topless have since surfaced. She failed to disclose the pictures in the contract she signed with the pageant, officials said.

Trump praised Prejean for her beauty and standing by her opinion, and he judged the topless photos as acceptable for her to continue her reign. "If her beauty wasn't so great no one really would have cared," he said on Tuesday.

Moakler, 34, who won the Miss USA title in 1995 and later went on to pose for Playboy magazine, said she had made her decision after the Trump news conference.

California banned gay weddings in a divisive November referendum that reversed an earlier court ruling which had allowed hundreds of same-sex couples to wed last year.