A woman who says she gave birth to Mr Dodi Fayed's daughter last night failed to produce evidence to support her claim.
Ms Diane Holliday (36), earlier said she hoped to produce proof of a DNA test proving that her 15month-old daughter, Marni, had been fathered by Mr Fayed, who was killed with Princess Diana in a car crash last August.
But later no such certification was forthcoming and Ms Holliday refused to make any further comment. She has spent the past three days at her home in Little Saxham, Suffolk, with journalists from the London Evening Standard newspaper.
The Fayed family says there is no proof that the child - who was put up for adoption in the US - is Dodi's. They have accused Ms Holliday of trying to exploit family grief for financial reasons.
Meanwhile, in Paris a French magistrate investigating the fatal crash has questioned a man who says he was the first witness at the scene but that police thought his emergency call was a joke.
Legal sources said the investigating judge, Mr Herve Stephan, questioned Mr Eric Petel (28), a cook, on February 2nd, more than five months after the crash.
Mr Petel told the magazine, Voici, in an interview published yesterday that the princess's Mercedes was still spinning slowly when he arrived. Mr Petel said he was driving a powerful motorbike at 70 m.p.h. when the Mercedes, headlights flashing, overtook him seconds before crashing in the Pont de l'Alma underpass.
Mr Petel said there was no other car either in front or behind the Mercedes. This contradicted police evidence that Princess Diana's car had hit a glancing blow against another car, believed to be a Fiat Uno, before crashing.
Nine photographers and a press motorcyclist are being investigated on suspicion that they may have contributed to the crash by chasing the princess's car and may have failed to assist the victims.