Libya says Sarkozy campaign funding letter 'fake'

TRIPOLI (AFP) - A letter in which Moamer Kadhafi's regime agreed to fund French President Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign appears to be fake, Libya's National Transitional Council said on Wednesday.

"We think that the letter is fake," NTC chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil told a news conference in Tripoli.

Mediapart website last month posted what it said was a 2006 document signed by Kadhafi's foreign intelligence chief Mussa Kussa referring to an "agreement in principle to support the campaign for the candidate for the presidential elections, Nicolas Sarkozy, for a sum equivalent to 50 million euros."

At the news conference, Abdel Jalil also called on France to help Libya extradite Bashir Saleh, a former Libyan official who was implicated in the alleged campaign scandal.

The letter, which Sarkozy has dismissed as a "crude forgery", was addressed to Saleh, Kadhafi's former chief of staff and head of Libya's $40 billion sovereign wealth fund, who currently resides in France.

Kussa from exile in Doha has also dismissed the document as a fake.

"These are media leaks that started in France," said Jalil. "We in the government do not have official information about this but if we have precise information we will release it with transparency."