Diana inquest to hear from MI6

The former head of MI6 is to give evidence at the Diana, Princess of Wales inquest.

The Foreign Office said Sir Richard Dearlove, the former chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) - MI6 - will appear at the High Court hearing next week.

He will use the appearance to refute Mohamed al Fayed's claim that the crash in Paris in 1997 in which Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed were killed was an MI6 murder plot.

In a statement issued through the Foreign Office, MI6 said: "SIS and Sir Richard welcome this opportunity for Sir Richard to refute the allegations of SIS involvement in the accident which led to the deaths of the Princess of Wales and Mr al Fayed."

Mohamed al Fayed will also take the witness box, next Monday.

The Harrods owner is convinced the establishment wanted the couple dead to prevent Dodi, a Muslim, becoming stepfather to the future King, Prince William.

He insists the couple were preparing to announce their engagement on the night of their deaths and is on record as believing that Diana was pregnant with Dodi's child.

The inquest has heard no medical evidence that she was, although Mr la Fayed is likely to say he was told so directly by Diana.

On Monday the inquest heard that an MI6 team was operating at the British Embassy in Paris at the time of Princess Diana's death.

But former ambassador Lord Jay told the High Court hearing he had no reason to believe their presence had anything to do with Diana's death in a car crash in the French capital.

Lord Jay - then known as Sir Michael Jay - said that the first he was even aware of her presence in Paris was when he was awoken with news of the crash just over an hour after the smash in the early hours of August 31, 1997.

Meanwhile, the coroner overseeing the inquest has revealed that the cost to the British taxpayer of investigating claims that Princess Diana was murdered have spiralled to an estimated £6 million.

Lord Justice Scott Baker announced that bills for the marathon hearing had topped £2.4 million.

The figure, met by the Ministry of Justice, comes on top of the reported £3.6 million cost of former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens' Operation Paget investigation into the case.

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