Chirac hits back over sleaze inquiry

Mr Chirac rejects the prosecutor's decision

By James Coomarasamy in Paris

President Chirac has said he will not appear as a witness in any investigation into the cash for air tickets scandal.

Investigators are looking into the origins of more than $300,000 used to pay for private air tickets by the president in the 1990s.

In a statement the president's office said that if Mr Chirac appeared as a witness he would be defying the French constitution's separation of powers.

But just a short while earlier the Paris prosecutor had given investigators the green light to summon him.

Intense conflict

It has recently emerged that in the mid-1990s, when he was mayor of Paris, Mr Chirac spent over $300,000 in cash on air tickets for himself, family and friends.

He said the money came from a secret but legal fund he had had at his disposal when he was previously prime minister.

This is politically damaging in itself, giving the impression of a man who has lived the high life at the taxpayers' expense.

However behind it are far more serious suspicions that the cash may have come from kickbacks.

The conflict between President Chirac and the French legal system is growing more intense by the day.

Investigators must now decide whether to provoke an open clash with the president by insisting on hearing his testimony - something two-thirds of the French want to happen.