The man known as Carlos the Jackal has taken over his own defence after his lawyers withdrew from the case.

BBC Paris Correspondent, Stephen Jessel, has been following the trial (Dur: 1'18")

Carlos is alleged to have masterminded a series of bombings, kidnappings and hijackings in the 1970s in support of the Palestinian cause.

He is being tried for killing two French intelligence agents and a fellow militant in 1975.

Earlier, the trial had been suspended when his lawyers said they were pulling out because the court refused to rule immediately on their request for a fresh investigation.

The court also turned down an appeal by Carlos, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, to set him free on the grounds that he was arrested illegally by French agents in Sudan in 1994.

Carlos: Seized in Sudan by French agents

In another setback for Carlos, the judge rejected a bid to have SOS Attentats, an association of victims of guerrilla attacks, prevented from participating in the case as civil plaintiffs.

Carlos argued on Friday, the first day of what is expected to be a week-long trial, that the association, whose president, Francoise Rudetski, is Jewish, had "racist, extremist, Zionist and revisionist objectives".

Carlos, who became a legend of terror in his pro-Palestinian guerrilla struggle in the 1970s and 1980s, is being re-tried for the 1975 killings after receiving a life sentence in absentia five years ago.

In the retrial, he faces a life sentence, which under French law means a maximum 30 years in prison.

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