Graft-probing magistrates questioned President Jacques Chirac's daughter today in a growing scandal over suspect cash payments he made for luxury holidays abroad, judicial sources said.
They said Ms Claude Chirac, who accompanied her father on some of the trips, had been questioned as a witness in the affair.
The magistrates are trying to establish whether the money for the flights, made between 1992 and 1995 while Mr Chirac was mayor of Paris, came from kickbacks.
Mr Chirac has refused to be questioned in the matter, citing constiitutional barriers, and denied wrongdoing. Aides said he would hit back at the allegations in a televised interview on Saturday, France's annual Bastille Day.
It was not immediately clear whether the magistrates would also attempt to question Mr Chirac's wife Bernadette. Le Mondenewspaper quoted sources close to the president as saying such a step would be tantamount to a declaration of war.
