London: Hasnat Khan, the Pakistani heart surgeon whom the late Princess Diana was apparently intent on marrying at one stage, is engaged again to a woman he took to a charity ball in London's Mayfair at the weekend.

Hasnat, who had an intense two-year-relationship with Diana which the princess ended in 1997 after starting a new romance with Dodi Fayed, is now 59 and said to be poised to marry a woman named as Somi Sohail, many years his junior.

A decade after Diana's death in 1997, Hasnat married Hadia Sher Ali, a Pakistani descendant from Afghan royalty, who was 29 at the time. However, their arranged marriage ended after just 18 months.

Hasnat took Somi to a ball organised by a charity called Chain of Hope, which says many of the heart problems suffered by children all over the world can be corrected easily by surgery.

One of Hasnat's friends was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying: "Hasnat is very happy. He hasn't told us much yet about Somi, but they plan to get married and have children. We are delighted for him."

Hasnat will forever occupy a footnote in British history as the man whom Diana called "Mr Wonderful" - although the British media never quite approved of the fact that she had taken up with a Pakistani.

Was Diana really serious about marrying Hasnat?

She was the one who made the initial moves after seeing Hasnat conduct a heart operation. He took her into theatre, made her don a face mask but realising she would be photographed, Diana made sure her eyes were made up.

She fell for Hasnat, smuggled him into her home Kensington Palace residence for what tabloids called "nights of passion" hidden in the boot of a car - not easy given his "healthy" build. She took advice on whether she could marry a Muslim, watched Bollywood videos, and even went to Pakistan in 1996 dressed in salwar kameez to lobby Hasnat's parents.

She ended the relationship possibly because he told her he could not marry her - probably a sensible decision given Diana's behaviour was frequently erratic.

He kept a dignified silence for many years but when Scotland Yard conducted an inquiry to assess whether Diana had been bumped off by British intelligence, he said he was sure she had died in an accident.