Mubarak lent French PM private plane for holiday

France’s Prime Minister dropped a political bombshell on his government yesterday, admitting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak lent him and his family a plane during a New Year’s holiday in Egypt.

The revelation came as France’s Foreign Minister battled calls for her resignation for travelling during a New Year’s holiday in a private plane owned by a businessman allegedly close to relatives of Tunisia’s ousted dictator.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon’s office quickly issued a statement after the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine broke the story about his trip to Egypt, where 300 people have been killed in protests seeking to oust Mr Mubarak. The statement said the Prime Minister “at the invitation of the Egyptian authorities” had “used a plane from the Egyptian government fleet to travel from Aswan to Abu Simbel”.

The statement said Mr Fillon met Mr Mubarak in the southern city of Aswan on December 30.

“He (Mr Fillon) also embarked on a boat trip on the Nile in the same conditions,” meaning also at the expense of the Egyptian authorities, it said.

Mr Fillon and his family were “lodged by the Egyptian authorities” during their trip to Egypt, which lasted from December 26 until January 2, it said.

It noted that the Prime Minister was making this information public “in the interests of transparency.”

Mr Fillon has in recent days repeatedly backed his Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie as she faced calls to step down over her alleged links with the ousted Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

During a holiday in Tunisia in late December, she took two trips in a plane owned by a prominent businessman – who critics said was close to the regime – when the uprising that eventually deposed Mr Ben Ali was already under way.