A scandal that has shaken France’s political elite has gained momentum with a report quoting a former secret agent alleging that Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin asked for an investigation into his chief political rival.

Osama bin Laden had access to a shared Swiss bank account in the 1990s used to collect and redistribute family inheritance money, his half brother told a French judge, court officials confirmed today.

French judges today ended an eight-year probe into an alleged kickback scheme at former state-owned oil giant Elf Aquitaine, implicating more than 40 people in a web of corruption that reached into Africa.