Former French PM lashes out at Sarkozy

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been accused of surrounding himself with "bootlickers" and "yes-men" by a former prime minister bitter at an investigation into his role in a political scandal.

Dominique de Villepin, prime minister under former President Jacques Chirac, has kept silent in public since Mr Sarkozy's triumph in the May presidential election.

But an appointment next week to be questioned by judges over his role in a smear scandal against Mr Sarkozy and the opportunity provided by the launch of his latest book on Napoleon Bonaparte have prompted him to speak out.

In a flurry of interviews over the past week, he has protested his innocence and made a series of pointed attacks on Mr Sarkozy, although he has not directly accused the President of involvement in the wrong he says he has suffered.