Former French PM questioned in smear scandal

PARIS, July 27 (Reuters) Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin met judges today to answer questions on his role in an apparent plot to smear Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of a recent presidential campaign.

Villepin's appearance before the judges could lead to him becoming the subject of a formal investigation into ''complicity in libellous allegations'', a step that can lead to trial but which does not imply guilt.

He arrived at the offices of judges Jean-Marie d'Huy and Henri Pons at around 9:40 a.m. local time 1310hrs but made no comment to waiting journalists.

The former prime minister, who was questioned last year, has denied any involvement in the case in which Sarkozy's name appeared on a faked list of accounts purportedly held at Luxembourg-based securities clearing house Clearstream.

The so-called ''Clearstream affair'' emerged in 2004 when anonymous letters were sent to a magistrate alleging that Sarkozy and other senior politicians held accounts linked to the controversial sale of frigates to Taiwan on 1991.

The allegations proved to be spurious and the focus of investigations switched to who was behind the denunciation, which was apparently aimed at damaging Sarkozy.

Villepin, a bitter rival of Sarkozy, was quickly suspected of involvement, despite his frequent denials.

Accusations against him have been hardened by recent evidence from former intelligence official Philippe Rondot and Jean-Louis Gergorin, a former executive at aerospace group EADS who admitted to being the anonymous informant.

Today, left-wing daily Liberation published what it said were extracts from Gergorin's evidence to judges that Villepin had asked him to transmit the list of accounts to magistrate Renaud Van Ruymbeke, apparently on the instructions of Chirac.

Villepin was foreign affairs and then interior minister at the time and has said that he was simply fulfilling his duties to check rumours of wrongdoing by a cabinet colleague.

He is expected to say that any action he undertook was part of his ministerial responsibilities and should not come under the jurisdiction of ordinary investigating magistrates.

The case, which nearly tore the government apart last year, has underlined the deep hostility that surrounded Sarkozy's rise to take over the centre right in the twilight of Jacques Chirac's 12-year term as president.

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