LONDON — A French magistrate denied Tuesday that she authorized the embalming of Princess Diana's body, or that anyone from the British Embassy in Paris had discussed embalming with her. The French embalmer who prepared the body said he suggested the procedure.

Mohamed Al Fayed, whose son Dodi died with Diana in a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997, has claimed that the British ambassador ordered the embalming to conceal that she was pregnant with his son's child..

Maud Morel Coujard, a deputy public prosecutor in Paris in 1997, told the British inquest she had not been informed of the decision to embalm the body. She also said she had had no contact with the British Embassy.

Al Fayed claims the embalming was done on instructions from the British intelligence agency MI6, and that MI6's instructions were conveyed to then-Ambassador Michael Jay, who communicated them to Coujard.

"Is there any truth in that whatsoever?" lawyer Ian Burnett asked.

"No," Coujard replied.

The British inquest jury heard earlier that embalming was undertaken to prevent the rapid decay of the body in the warm, late-summer weather.

Jean Monceau, an embalmer who was called to the hospital, said Diana's body was not in a fit state to be seen by her ex-husband Prince Charles and French President Francois Mitterrand, who were due at the hospital to pay their respects.

Monceau said he told Keith Moss, then British consul-general in Paris, that the body should be embalmed.

"He told me to do what was necessary, and it was very obvious to me that it was not possible to present the body in the state that it was," Monceau said. He said Marine Monteil, head of the Brigade Criminelle, also told him to "do what is necessary."

At the time, Monceau said, he believed that embalming was mandatory for any body being returned to Britain, learning only much later that this was not the case.