The BBC's Graeme McLagan: "Both men listened to the decision without any apparent emotion"

He appeared at Bow Street Magistrates' Court with Said Mohammed Ayas to learn the result of committal proceedings.

The former business partners will return to court in January to stand trial.

Mr Aitken, 56, faces charges of perjury, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and perverting the course of justice.

Mr Ayas, also 56, is accused of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and perverting the course of justice.

Neither man said anything as they heard the magistrate rule they should face trial in the Old Bailey.

Chief Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate Graham Parkinson made the ruling in a brief hearing on Monday morning.

Jonathan Aitken with his daughter Victoria

The charges stem from Mr Aitken's unsuccessful libel action against The Guardian and Granada Television.

He sued over allegations that he allowed an Arab friend to pay his £1,000 bill for a stay at the Ritz Hotel in Paris.

The Crown Prosecution Service decided in August not bring a case against Mr Aitken's 18-year-old daughter Victoria.

She was arrested in March, suspected of conspiring to pervert the cause of justice during her father's collapsed libel case, but the CPS ruled there was insufficient evidence for a reasonable chance of conviction.

Mr Aitken resigned as chief secretary to the treasury in April 1995 to fight his libel action, declaring he would take on the "cancer of bent and twisted journalism".

He described the case as "a crusade for truth" against malicious and false reporting.

He dropped his court bid in June 1997 after The Guardian produced new evidence showing his wife Lolicia had not paid a bill for a stay at the Ritz Hotel in Paris.

He split up with his wife the day before he dropped the libel action.

Mr Aitken remained an MP but lost his South Thanet seat in Kent - which he had represented since 1974 - at the general election in May 1997.

Charges in full

The charges against the Mr Aitken and Mr Ayas:

• A joint charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by signing witness statements for the libel case knowing they gave a false account of the movements of Mr Aitken's wife and daughter during the period in September 1993 when he stayed at the Paris Ritz.

• Mr Ayas faces a separate charges of acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice in signing another witness statement related to the Ritz bill and the Aitken family.

• Mr Aitken is accused of the same charge regarding a signed statement stating his wife Lolicia paid 4,257 French francs towards his Ritz bill.

• He faces another charge of acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice related to a witness statement he drafted in the name of his daughter.

• The former cabinet minister is also charged with having committed perjury during the statements he made as a sworn witness during the High Court case on 4 and 14 June 1997, when he claimed Lolicia had paid part of his hotel bill.