Paparazzo who will snap up millions

While Diana, Princess of Wales, was posing for the photographers with landmine victims in Bosnia, the focus back home was on a set of pictures which showed her in a much more informal setting.

Mario Brenna is set to become a millionaire from his snaps of the princess on a yacht off the coast of Sardinia with Dodi Fayed, the millionaire playboy son of the Harrods owner, Mohamed Al Fayed.

It is understood Brenna, a 40-year-old Italian who lives in Monaco, happened to spot the Fayed boat, Jonikal, as he was in the area on other photographic assignments.

The sight of Princess Diana and Mr Fayed relaxing together in swimming costumes caught with his telephoto lens appeared in the Sunday Mirror yesterday and are set for publication around the world today. The reproduction rights over the next year or two could net Mr Brenna several million pounds.

Though barely known to the British paparazzi, Brenna is a respected photographer in the worlds of fashion and Mediterranean high society.

He has been an official photographer to fashion houses including Versace, and augmented his living by photographing some of the smartest parties.

"The most successful people in this business are the ones that can cross from one sort of thing to another. He's one of them," said one journalist yesterday. A photographer said: "He's a very smooth chap and, I expect, a very desirable one right now."

It is understood that the Sunday Mirror, which is part of the Mirror Group, a shareholder in The Independent, paid around pounds 250,000 for its exclusive rights to the pictures yesterday and other tabloids are rumoured to have paid pounds 100,000 each for more today.

The deals in Britain have been brokered by London photographer Jason Fraser. It is understood he was contacted by Brenna earlier this week and is handling the rights in America and Australia as well as the UK.

Negotiations would have been carried out at the most senior newspaper management level. Half a dozen papers were contacted and an agreement was struck. The Mail on Sunday later offered an increased bid, but Fraser refused to renege on the Sunday Mirror deal.

Fraser is known as a photographer who works alone. His assignments have included photographing Colonel Gaddafi after the bombing of Tripoli but he also frequently pictured the British royals. He once handed a roll of film to Princess Diana when she was upset at being photographed leaving a dinner party with a stranger.

The French rights to Brenna's pictures are being handled by Daniel Angeli, who took the notorious Duchess of York toe-sucking pictures.

t The Diana photographs were described as "intrusive" yesterday by Peter Mandelson, the minister without portfolio, but he ruled out government action to impose tougher privacy laws, writes Colin Brown.

He said he was against introducing statutory laws on press and privacy, and he cast doubt on claims that the Government plans to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights into British law would mean new curbs on the press.

Mr Mandelson said the convention gives protection to both the individual's right to privacy and the media's right to freedom of expression. "You've got two competing rights there and they've got to be properly balanced," he said. The Government would leave it up to the judges to determine the balance, said Mr Mandelson, who saw nothing wrong with media coverage of Robin Cook's decision to leave his wife after 28 years to live with his secretary.

"Robin Cook himself has said he's a public person, he's a public individual. What he regretted were the consequences for his wife and family and he made a very fulsome apology to his wife and to his two boys for the hounding that they subsequently received.

"Although I must say I think even that has been tempered by a great deal of responsibility and sensitivity shown in the main by the press," Mr Mandelson said on BBC Breakfast with Frost.

"The problem of having an all-encompassing privacy law being introduced by Parliament is the protection it gives to those who don't merit protection," added the minister.

"The press, when it's doing it's job properly, when it's not just engaging in gossip and tittle-tattle and having a go at various individuals ... is exposing wrongdoing and corruption and malpractice. "I would hate to see the day when the British press are prevented from exposing that wrongdoing."

and dealing with corruption among certain individuals, because oftentimes its only the press who can do that job," he said.