FRENCH officials opened a judicial investigation into allegations former President Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign attracted illicit funds from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The inquiry adds to the legal issues plaguing Mr Sarkozy, who some see making a comeback bid in 2017 after losing office last year in a defeat that cost him the immunity from prosecution he enjoyed during five years as President.
An official at the prosecutor's office said an inquiry had been opened after allegations made by Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, himself under investigation over alleged arms sales to Pakistan in the 1990s.
Mr Sarkozy, who met Gaddafi in Paris in 2007, has always denied wrongdoing and has pointed out he was the chief advocate of a Nato-led campaign that led to Gaddafi's demise in 2011.
The funding of Mr Sarkozy's 2007 campaign is already being examined as part of another inquiry into ties between his UMP party and France's richest woman, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.
Investigations began last month into claims Mr Sarkozy took advantage of the 90-year-old's mental frailty to win campaign funds, which he denies.
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