French spy chief sacked

President Chirac denies allegations of misconduct

The new French Government of President Jacques Chirac has sacked the head of the country's foreign intelligence service, Jean-Claude Cousseran.

His dismissal comes a month after Le Monde newspaper reported that Mr Chirac believed the intelligence service allowed illegal investigations into his financial dealings.

The alleged probes were carried out under the former Socialist-led government, Le Monde reported.

Mr Cousseran was replaced as head of France's foreign intelligence agency, DGSE, by career diplomat Pierre Brochand.

Mr Chirac's conservative government came to power following parliamentary elections in June.

Ransom

According to Le Monde, Mr Chirac believed both Mr Cousseran and the head of domestic counter-espionage, Jean-Jacques Pascal, ordered or allowed investigations into alleged links with Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and former Japanese financier Shoichi Osada.

Mr Chirac thought the agencies revived old rumours that a covert ransom was paid to Iran in 1988 for the release of five French hostages held by Lebanese militia groups, and that French politicians pocketed part of the cash, the paper said.

Mr Chirac, who was prime minister at the time of the hostage crisis, has always denied his government paid a ransom.

Mr Pascal was replaced at the head of the counter-espionage agency, DST, earlier this month.

It is not know whether anything came out of the secret probes into the hostages' release allegedly carried out in recent years, Le Monde said.

The head of the Socialist Party, Francois Hollande, has said the former government never attempted to use the intelligence services to implicate the president.