London: Princess Diana claimed in a letter that her ex-husband Prince Charles plotted to kill her by staging a fatal car accident, it was revealed today (Jan 6, 2004).

The allegation, from a note she gave her former butler Paul Burrell, was published in the 'Daily Mirror'.

The paper claims that 10 months before her death in a car crash, she wrote, "My husband is planning an accident in my car, brake failure and serious head injury...to make the path clear for him to marry."

At the time Diana was said to be close to a breakdown after her divorce.

The letter emerged as Metropolitan Commissioner Sir John Stevens started a year-long inquiry into the Princess's death.

Royal coroner Michael Burgess, opening her inquest, said Sir John will investigate all the theories surrounding the crash.

Key witnesses, including Burrell and possibly her sons, will be interviewed in a "single search for the truth".

The coroner said he was aware of "speculation" that the deaths of Diana and Dodi Fayed "were not the result of the sad but relatively straightforward road traffic accident in Paris".