Pakistani surgeon details romance with Diana: inquest (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) - A Pakistani surgeon who had a two-year romance with Princess Diana revealed details of their relationship Monday, including how she disguised herself to avoid publicity.

In a written statement read out to the coroners inquest into the death of Diana and her last boyfriend Dodi Fayed, heart surgeon Hasnat Khan -- who the princess once considered marrying -- said she was very flirtatious.

Khan, who met Diana in August or September 1995, told how it was the princess who broke off their relationship after returning to London from a holiday with Mohamed Al-Fayed and his family.

He thought she had "met someone else from the Mohamed Al-Fayed contingent," because "Diana was not her normal self", he said, adding: "I did not know who it was. It could have been a bodyguard or anyone."

"At a second meeting, she said it was all over between us, but she denied there was anyone else," he said, adding: "I was surprised when she said there was no-one else."

In eagerly-awaited testimony, the 48-year-old Pakistani medic explained how they met when Diana came to watch life-saving surgery at the Royal Brompton Hospital in west London.

The princess was "down to earth and made everyone feel at ease", he said, adding that she was also "very flirtatious with everyone".

During their relationship, which ended shortly before her romance with Dodi Fayed and their death in a Paris car crash on August 30, 1997, the pair could only escape media attention at her Kensington Palace home or his.

He said they had a normal sexual relationship, adding: "I have no reason to believe she was unfaithful to me." She also introduced him to her two sons, princes William and Harry.

Of the times they went out in public, he recounted how once in a pub she asked to order the drinks because she did not usually do so. On another occasion she wore a black wig to a central London jazz club.

Dodi Fayeds father believes Diana and his sons deaths were due to a plot by the British establishment to prevent her marrying a Muslim or having his baby. Previous probes have concluded it was a tragic accident.

Khan confirmed testimony heard earlier in the inquest, that Diana had asked her butler Paul Burrell to ask a priest about possibly marrying him. "I thought it was a ridiculous idea," he said.

On Dianas relations with the royal family, Khan said she was "always very complimentary about the Queen.

"Although she did not like the Duke of Edinburgh (the queens husband, Prince Philip) she never expressed any fear of him."

Mohamed Al-Fayed, the multi-millionaire owner of Londons upmarket Harrods department store, alleges that Prince Philip was the main force behind the supposed plot.

Khan -- who said he received anonymous threatening letters due to his relationship with Diana, including cut-out pictures of him with a noose around his neck -- said he did not believe Al-Fayeds claims that she was pregnant.

She was always very careful about taking contraceptive pills, he said, adding that if she had been pregnant "she would definitely have told somebody ... I think she would have kept the baby, had that been the case."