An Italian appeals court has overturned a four-year prison sentence given to the former Socialist Prime Minister, Bettino Craxi, for his part in one of the country's biggest business scandals.

The court ordered a retrial of Mr Craxi and three other defendants including the former Interior Minister, Claudio Martelli.

They were convicted last year of securing millions of dollars of illegal payments into party funds during the rapid creation and dissolution of a chemical giant, called Enimont.

Mr Craxi, who has been tried in several other corruption cases, says he is the victim of a political vendetta and has fled to Tunisia.

Correspondents say the Enimont trial was the most important of several scandals that destroyed the main post-war Italian parties in the early 1990s.