A new war of words started today between the Opposition leader and the Prime Minister's chief of staff, with Keith Schembri accusing Simon Busuttil of failing to appear in court to testify in a libel case he had filed against him.

In February, Dr Busuttil had appeared in court and asked not to testify in the case before he was given a copy of the speech, on which the libel case was based.

He had argued that he could not testify if he did not know what the accusation against him was.

His request had been accepted and the case had to continue today.

In a statement this afternoon, Mr Schembri accused Dr Busuttil of finding another excuse not to testify in the libel case and opted instead to testify in the inquiry on government corruption.

Mr Schembri said that, in doing so, the Opposition leader was at least acknowledging that the inquiry was a serious one. 

This, he said, was the unscruplous behaviour of someone who made allegations left, right and centre but then refused to answer when it was time to do so.

But in a reply, Dr Busuttil said that this morning he spent more than an hour submitting proof of corruption in the citizenship sale scheme before Magistrate Aaron Bugeja.

The libel case, Dr Busuttil said, was postponed by agreement between the two sides after he had been requested to give evidence before Magistrate Bugeja.