Kalmadi in Diana gaffe

Kalmadi, who was booed at the ceremony for his chaotic handling of the Games' build-up, made the mistake at a press conference.

"Yes, Princess Diana was there," he said before correcting himself. "Prince Charles and (Camilla) the Duchess of Cornwall. Now they have gone off and they appreciated all the efforts made here."

Princess Diana died in a car crash in 1997.

Kalmadi, who led the Games' organising committee, was booed when he began his welcome speech to 60,000 spectators at the opening ceremony on Sunday.

The Indian government stepped in last week to complete urgent work on infrastructure for the Delhi Games, which had threatened to become a national embarrassment after several health and security issues raised the possibility they would be cancelled.

The atmosphere otherwise for the teams and officials had been good with the crowd at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium offering a particularly warm applause to neighbours Pakistan, who have a tense relationship with India.

Kalmadi was able to finish his five-minute long speech without further interruption before handing over to Michael Fennell, the chief of the Commonwealth Games Federation.