Battle brewing over Anna Nicole Smith's body

Two men claiming to be the father of Anna Nicole Smith's five-month-old daughter are now battling over the late model's remains.

Photographer Larry Birkhead petitioned a court Tuesday, asking thatSmith's body be preserved for DNA paternity testing, while her companion and lawyer, Howard K. Stern, wants the body released so it can be buried.

On Wednesday, a Florida judge ordered the morguenot to release the body because of an order for DNA testing from California.

However, hours later in Los Angeles, a judge rescinded the DNA order, clearing the way for Smith's body to be buried.

Lawyers for Stern went back to Circuit Judge Lawrence Korda in Florida to ask that the body be released.

But Korda ordered the body held for 10 days after a brief meeting in his chambers with lawyers for Birkhead, who wants the body kept in the state until paternity testing on Smith's baby is complete.

Broward County medical examiner Joshua Perper said Smith's body will remain refrigerated until he receives a judge's order. Her DNA was collected during an autopsy.

The 39-year-old former Playboy playmate died last Thursday after collapsing at a hotel in Hollywood, Fla.

Meanwhile, Stern and Smith's mother, Vergie Arthur, are at odds over where Smith will be buried, with her mother wanting to take the body back to Texas.

Stern and Ron Rale, the lawyer who represented Smith in the Los Angeles court battle over paternity,are co-executors of Smith's estate and say they are authorized to make funeral arrangements.

Smith's mother could not immediately be located for comment. Rale said Smith and her mother had been estranged for 15 years.

Both Birkhead and Stern claim to be the father of five-month-old Dannielynn.

However, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, has said he had a decade-long affair with Smith and may also be the father. He said Monday he plans to file a paternity challenge in court and wants a DNA test.