Former minister's future on trial

A corruption trial that began in Paris yesterday will either ruin or resurrect the once brilliant career of the former French finance minister, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who had been tipped as a future prime minister.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, 52, resigned from Lionel Jospin's Socialist-led government two years ago after he was accused of signing falsified documents when practising as a lawyer before he took office. He was also named in two other corruption investigations but proceedings against him in these cases havebeen dropped.

The former minister's lawyers are confident that he will also be acquitted in the current case. If so, Mr Strauss-Kahn will be free to resume his political career and could still become prime minister if Mr Jospin wins the presidential election next April and May. At present, a victory for the left looks unlikely, but much could change in seven months.

Mr Strauss-Kahn was originally accused of claiming payment for fictitious work for a student insurance company, run by senior officials of the Socialist party. The prosecution now accepts that he performed the work, but accuses him of signing back-dated documents to claim his money.

This is a relatively minor offence in itself and may not be illegal at all, according to one interpretation of the law.

A wider investigation, not involving Mr Strauss-Kahn, concerns accusations of the insurance company funds being misused and documents being falsified.