Diana inquest hears third day of Burrell evidence

The Queen was "concerned" about Diana's new relationship with Dodi Fayed, butler Paul Burrell told the princess's inquest today.

The man described as Diana's "rock" told the central London inquest: "Her Majesty was concerned that the princess was rather over-excited at the moment."

Burrell said the exchange took place just weeks before the couple were killed in a Paris car crash in August 1997.

Ian Croxford QC, for the Ritz Hotel, Paris, asked: "She (Diana) was at the start of a long-term union with Dodi al Fayed. What did Her Majesty say about this long-term union?"

Burrell said: "Her Majesty was concerned about the future."

Croxford asked: "About a marriage?"

Burrell said: "No, the Queen did not mention that."

Croxford said: "A long-term union, is that the expression she used?"

Burrell replied: "A relationship."

It was during the same meeting with the Queen that she allegedly warned Burrell to be careful of "powerful" forces operating in Britain. Burrell now denies that the Queen ever used the phrase "dark forces" at work, though those words appear in his book.

Burrell, 49, is now into his third day of evidence, originally scheduled for just one day. He had delayed his flight back to the US, where he spends much of his time.

Earlier, Burrell admitted keeping quiet in his first book about Dodi giving Diana a ring shortly before their deaths.

Accused of "lying" in his book by Michael Mansfield QC, for Dodi's father Mohamed al Fayed, he replied that was a "strong" term.

"The reason I didn't include it in A Royal Duty was that I didn't feel I had to at the time," he told the court.

Al Fayed believes Diana and Dodi were murdered through a staged car crash to prevent them announcing their engagement. But Burrell insisted that Diana was still in love with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan - and not Dodi - in the run-up to her death.

"I knew that she would not get engaged," he told the court.

Mr Mansfield replied: "You may like to think you knew that but actually you really don't know, do you?"

Mr Burrell said: "I don't know."

He agreed with Mr Mansfield that there were "concerns" in the "establishment" in the summer of 1997 about Diana's closeness to the Fayed family and her political activities on landmines.

But he said the princess's romance with Dodi appeared to have "peaked" days before the couple's deaths.

Burrell said that he spoke to Diana while she was holidaying with Dodi on his father's yacht, the Jonikal, when she seemed to be feeling "claustrophobic".

He told the inquest that she appeared to be feeling quite "trapped", with Dodi controlling her "every movement".

He explained: "The princess was by that time feeling claustrophobic. This was towards the end of the last holiday on the Jonikal and only days before her death.

"And in one of the last conversations, she said she was feeling claustrophobic... it was scorching hot on deck and freezing cold in the air conditioning (below) and she was looking forward to coming home.

"I felt she was telling me, she was inferring, that this relationship had reached its peak and it was going down the other side.

"Very often relationships did that in the princess's world."

He added: "It was a very fast-moving relationship, it had a very short fuse, whereas the relationship before was a very long relationship."