Separate inquests into the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi al-Fayed will open on January 6, Coroner of The Queen's Household Michael Burgess said on Thursday.

The inquests will be the first official public hearings on British soil into the deaths.

UK officials had said a British inquest would be held once legal proceedings in France -- where the two were killed in a car crash -- were completed.

The French process was over on November 28, when three photographers who took pictures of the couple at the scene of the crash in Paris were acquitted of invading their privacy.

A five-year French investigation had previously concluded that the driver Henri Paul, who was also killed, had been drinking and was speeding.

Dodi's father, Egyptian-born billionaire Mohammed al-Fayed, has long contended the crash was part of a murder plot and urged a public inquiry.

He is in the process of appealing a decision by Scotland's Lord Advocate, Lord Drummond-Young, who refused his application for an inquiry in Scotland on grounds the crash happened outside Scottish jurisdiction.