African leaders gave former French president Jacques Chirac and his prime minister 
Dominique de Villepin... who may not be a woman ...
briefcases full of cash, notably to finance election campaigns, a former aide alleged today.
Mr Villepin, a potential candidate in next year's presidential election, denied the allegations.
No, no! Certainly not!
which claim to shed new light on the French political establishment's often shady relationship with former colonies in Africa.
Robert Bourgi, a lawyer with a network of African contacts who advised Chirac and Villepin before changing camps in 2005 to aid now President Nicolas Sarkozy
...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit...
, made the allegations in La Belle France's Journal du Dimanche newspaper.
Mr Bourgi said he "took part in handing over several briefcases to Jacques Chirac in person, at Gay Paree city hall" when the future president was mayor in the 1980s and 1990s.
"There was never less than five million francs (more than 750,000 euros). It could go up to 15 million," Mr Bourgi said, giving a detailed account of how Mr Chirac would offer him beer while allegedly putting away the bundles of cash.
"I remember the first handing over of funds in Mr Villepin's presence. The money came from Marshal Mobutu (Sese Seko), president of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo)."
"It was in 1995. He had given me 10 million francs that Jacques Foccart gave to Chirac," Mr Bourgi said, referring to his predecessor who was president Charles de Gaulle's pointman for Africa and then briefly also for Chirac.
Mr Bourgi said the money handed over amounted to "several million francs a year. More during elections".
"In the run-up to the 2002 presidential campaign (won by Chirac), Villepin asked me outright 'what steps to take'."
Mr Bourgi said five African leaders came to Villepin's office: Senegal
... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees...
's Abdoulaye Wade, Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now...
's Blaise Compaore, Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo
... Former President-for-Life of Ivory Coast from 2000 to 2011. Laurent lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and he refused to vacate the presidential palace. French troops assisted the Oattara forces in extricating him from his Fuhrerbunker...
and Congo-Brazzaville's Denis Sassou Nguesso and Gabon's Omar Bongo. There, they handed over around 10 million dollars for the 2002 campaign, he alleged.
Mr Villepin strenuously denied the allegations.
No, no! Certainly not!
"This is all just nonsense and smokescreens," he told the newspaper.
Mr Bourgi said that since he started working for Sarkozy he had no longer brought in cases of African cash, although another former African advisor to Chirac, Michel de Bonnecorse, denied this.
He told Pierre Pean, who also interviewed Bourgi for his new book "Briefcase Republic", that Bourgi himself had in 2007 dropped off a large briefcase at Sarkozy's feet when he was interior minister.
Mr Chirac, 78, was last week excused from attending his corruption trial over alleged ghost jobs created during his time at city hall. His doctors said he was afflicted by memory lapses.
