France PM survives no-confidence vote

PARIS - Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin won a vote of no-confidence from Parliament but remains besieged as he strives to clear himself of a dirty-tricks campaign claims against a bitter rival.

The conservative Premier survived the motion tabled by the opposition Socialists in the National Assembly. It was backed by only 190 votes, far short of the 289 majority needed.

The outcome had never been in doubt, given that President Jacques Chirac's UMP party has Assembly control and its members are fearful of precipitating any early elections.

But the vote saw de Villepin's centre-right coalition split badly. Nearly half of the small centrist UDF party sided with the Opposition, and Villepin was hauled over the flames in speech after speech.

"This is no longer a Government, it's a battlefield!" Socialist leader Francois Hollande sneered, charging that only hatred bound Villepin's turbulent Government together.

"This Government is built on a hateful rivalry," said UDF leader Francois Bayrou. "The French want nothing more to do with this republic of darkness, this republic of shadows."

Infighting between Villepin and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy - both contenders to be France's next President - has boiled over in recent weeks, with tales of smear campaigns and alleged attempts by Villepin and Chirac to use spies, including Philippe Rondot, to dig the dirt on Sarkozy.

But Villepin fought back furiously in Parliament against claims of sleaze and skulduggery. "Slander feeds slander. Lies feed lies. Excess feeds excess. Rumour is an animal whose hunger is never satisfied," the Premier said.

"Yes, we are going through a challenging time. But the Government will cope with it, the majority will cope with it, because we all seek the same goal, of truth and justice."

The scandal relates to a list of prominent figures who supposedly received a rakeoff from the sale of French frigates to Taiwan in the 1990s. The names included that of Sarkozy. But the list turned out to be false, and investigators are now trying to find out who was behind it.

Villepin is not considered to be that person, although his opponents, pointing to testimony leaked to the press, say he asked top secret agent Rondot to root out details of Sarkozy's involvement in the list to blacken his name.