Former royal butler Paul Burrell has been asked to return to the Diana, Princess of Wales inquest following newspaper claims his evidence to the hearing was not the whole truth.

Coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker has called for the ex-aide to return to the witness box and explain "discrepancies" between his comments to the jury and others attributed to him in the Sun newspaper.

In a video recording obtained by the tabloid, Mr Burrell apparently said he held back certain facts and introduced "red herrings" during his evidence at the High Court hearing.

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A spokesman for the inquest said: "The coroner has asked Mr Burrell to return to court to explain discrepancies between the evidence he gave to the inquest and the material which is contained in the transcripts of the recording taken by the Sun newspaper."

In a video recording obtained by the Sun, Mr Burrell apparently said he held back certain facts and introduced "red herrings" during his evidence at the High Court hearing last month.

According to the newspaper, Mr Burrell said in the footage: "I told the truth as far as I could - but I didn't tell the whole truth. Perjury is not a nice thing to have to contemplate.

"I was very naughty and I made a couple of red herrings, and I couldn't help doing it."

In the tape, which the paper said was recorded in New York, Mr Burrell said he was not willing to reveal the entire details of his conversation with the Queen after Diana's death in a Paris car crash in 1997.

He had previously claimed the Queen warned him about "dark forces" at work.

"The conversation with the Queen was three hours long," Mr Burrell reportedly said on the video.

"And I wasn't about to sit there and divulge everything she said to me."

The coroner launched an investigation following the publication of the allegations in the newspaper on Monday and asked to see the full tape of the conversation.

Earlier today, Mr Burrell's solicitors issued a statement saying their client did not "conceal" anything relevant or tell "untruths" during his evidence to the inquest.

The tabloid story was the "result of entrapment" and the conversation the allegations were based on was an "insidious" form of questioning, claimed solicitors' firm Walker Smith Way.

The lawyers said that when the conversation took place the former butler "had been drinking all evening, was tired and depressed" and was "showing-off".

The statement said: "When giving evidence at the inquest, Paul Burrell did not conceal anything remotely relevant to the inquiry into the cause of the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed.

"He held nothing back.

"Whilst under cross-examination Paul Burrell's evidence may at times have strayed from the strictly relevant, he told no untruths and was not in contempt of court.

"Indeed, he tried to assist the court so far as he was able."

The former butler's lawyers also said in the statement: "The Sun coverage is incomplete, and the result of entrapment.

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