Pictures of royal baby Mia sold to UK mag

ZARA Phillips and Mike Tindall have sold the first pictures of their baby daughter Mia to a UK magazine.

The Queen's fourth great grandchild, who is 16th in line to the throne and was born on January 17, appears on the front cover of this week's edition of Hello!.

Dressed in a white striped baby gro, Mia, awake and content, is pictured lying in front of her proud parents.

In 2008, Zara's brother Peter Phillips was criticised after selling photos of his wedding to Canadian bride Autumn Kelly to Hello! and reportedly receiving STG500,000 ($A930,665) in return.

At the time Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb described the move "a serious error of judgment" that "smacks rather of greed".

Last September, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent's son Lord Frederick Windsor and his wife Sophie Winkleman posed for Hello! with their baby daughter Maud.

Earlier this month, Hello! published paparazzi photographs of Prince George in the arms of his mother the Duchess of Cambridge as they left a British Airways plane while on a Caribbean holiday.

Some commentators expressed surprised that the Cambridges had apparently not tried to stop the publication of the paparazzi images.

A spokesman for Hello! magazine said: "We are delighted that Zara and Mike Tindall chose to share their beautiful baby pictures with Hello!"