The BBC has reached a ?50,000 out-of-court settlement with a journalist of Indian origin who accused it of racial and sexual discrimination, the Press Trust of India has reported.

Fifty-one-year-old Sharan Sandhu told an employment tribunal she had been repeatedly passed over for promotion between 1991 and 1999 because of her colour and gender.

The BBC, while making the settlement, asserted it did not accept her career was affected by gender or race discrimination.

Sandhu, who joined the BBC in 1990 as a sub-editor, claimed that a corps of White male journalists reigned over the World Service with a "mentality that demeaned and embarrassed ethnic minority colleagues".

Sandhu, a mother of three, claimed that being passed over for promotion between 1994 and 1999 led to stress and depression.

Speaking on behalf of the corporation, a spokesperson said: "The BBC has shown Sharan exceptional goodwill. We do not recognise the colonial mentality she described. We gave Sharan extensive opportunities to develop her career."

He said the BBC "stands by its selection procedures, both successful and unsuccessful, that Sharan went through and believes that the procedures are demonstrably fair."