One day on the job nets former French leader a $164,000 payout

Dominique de Villepin's arangement has infuriated many. Photo / Getty Images

France's cash-strapped Socialist Government approved Dominique de Villepin's return to the diplomatic service for one day after an absence of 20 years so that he could retire with a pay-off of €100,000 ($164,000).

The conservative former Prime Minister, best known abroad for his impassioned speech to the United Nations in 2003 against war on Iraq, was taken back into the service last September, sources at the French Foreign Ministry said.

The arrangement, which is shrouded in a French bureaucratic device called the career termination mechanism, infuriated many within the ministry because President Francois Hollande's Government is raising taxes and cutting spending to rein in large deficits.

A spokesman for Mr Villepin, who is at present travelling abroad, said there had been an "administrative error which Mr Villepin has already asked to be rectified by the relevant authorities as soon as it was noticed".

The spokesman, Daniel Arlaud, did not respond to further inquiries as to how the "error" happened and whether the money had been repaid.

Official documents show Mr Villepin, 60, apparently made the request to benefit from the arrangement with the foreign office.

Ministry sources said that there did not appear to be anything illegal about the deal, but that it would likely have had to be approved by Laurent Fabius, the Foreign Minister.

A ministry spokesman said there had been "no discretionary or preferential treatment" for Mr Villepin. Mr Fabius and Mr Villepin are graduates of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA), an exclusive university that has produced many of the French elite.