Recasts, adds details from start of hearing in paragraphs 3-4

By Michael Holden and Sam Tobin

LONDON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - The start of Prince Harry's court battle against Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper group was briefly delayed at London's High Court on Tuesday.

Harry and former senior lawmaker Tom Watson are suing News Group Newspapers over alleged unlawful activities carried out by journalists and private investigators working for its papers, the Sun and the defunct News of the World, from 1996 until 2011.

At what was due to be the start of an eight-week trial, Harry and Watson's lawyer David Sherborne asked the judge, Timothy Fancourt, for more time.

"I'm sure your lordship can understand why that might be needed," Sherborne said without elaborating.

The prince has said his mission is not money but to get to the truth, after other claimants settled cases to avoid the risk of a multi-million pound legal bill that could be imposed even if they won in court but had rejected NGN's offer.

"One of the main reasons for seeing this through is accountability, because I'm the last person that can actually achieve that," Harry, who is set to appear as a witness himself in February, said last month.

NGN has paid out hundreds of millions of pounds to victims of phone-hacking and other unlawful information gathering by the News of the World, and settled more than 1,300 lawsuits involving celebrities, politicians, well-known sports figures and ordinary people who were connected to them or major events.

Harry's legal team has said in earlier court documents that his older brother Prince William, the heir to the throne, had settled his own case against NGN in 2020 for "a very large sum of money".

While Murdoch closed the News of the World in 2011, the publisher has always rejected claims there was any unlawful activity at the Sun and says it will fully defend the claims.

The eight-week trial will at first consider "generic issues" such as the extent of any phone-hacking and unlawful information gathering at the papers.

Harry's team will argue that senior executives and editors knew unlawful behaviour was widespread, and allege that they misled police, provided false statements to a public inquiry into media ethics held from 2011-12 and instigated a massive cover-up with the deletion of millions of emails.

"This allegation is wrong, unsustainable, and is strongly denied," a spokesperson for NGN said. "NGN will be calling a number of witnesses including technologists, lawyers and senior staff to defeat the claim."

(Reporting by Michael Holden, Editing by William Maclean and Timothy Heritage)

((michael.holden@thomsonreuters.com;))