Fayed 'suspected plot immediately'

The court heard that, on hearing the news that his son Dodi had been killed and Diana injured, the Harrods tycoon immediately concluded it was "not an accident" adding cryptically: "I know more than you know."

Franz Klein, president of the Ritz Hotel in Paris, also told the jury that Dodi had spoken to him of plans to get engaged to Diana. He claimed they were planning to settle in Paris - in Villa Windsor, the house where Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson lived after his abdication.

With his employer Mohamed al Fayed sitting a few metres away, Mr Klein also spoke of a mysterious claim that staff at the hospital where Diana died believed she had been pregnant. And during cross-examination he added that he would not be surprised if Henri Paul, the couple's driver for the ill-fated journey, had been in contact with "foreign security services".

Mr Klein - known as Frank - said he called Mr al Fayed between around 12.40am and 12.50am on August 31 1997 - just over 20 minutes after the crash.

The court has heard that Diana was freed from the wreckage at 1am and was not declared dead until 4am.

Breaking down in tears, Mr Klein recalled how he told Mr al Fayed that there had been an accident and that Dodi was dead. "Mr Fayed said 'What about the princess?' and I said 'the information I have is she's alive', the only thing I knew," he told the court.

"Mr Fayed, very calm, said to me: 'Frank, this is not an accident, this is a plot or an assassination.'

"I said 'you cannot say that, it's an accident' and he said 'Frank, I know more than you know, more than you think.'"

He said Mr al Fayed later claimed that Diana had confided in him. "He mentioned to me that when the princess stayed with the family in Saint Tropez, that then he had conversations and ... the princess - I cannot say if the word 'complained' is right - but mentioned the way things happened with her in the UK."