FRANCE:French president Nicolas Sarkozy is embroiled in a row over a major arms deal with Libya, which was signed a week after he won the release of six jailed health workers.
The French leader has repeatedly denied promising the weapons to Tripoli as part of a secret trade-off for the prisoners' freedom.
However, he faces further controversy after European aerospace company EADS announced it had signed a €296 million military deal with Libya.
News that the sale had been "finalised" came just two days after the son of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gadafy, suggested Tripoli had been promised arms.
François Hollande, head of France's Socialist party, wants a parliamentary inquiry to "throw light" on talks between Paris and Tripoli. And he questioned whether it was right to "have an arms trade with a country run by Gadafy, who has been responsible for terrorist attacks".
Mr Sarkozy sent his wife, Cecilia, to negotiate the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor held in jail for eight years on charges of deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV.
A day after they were freed, he flew to Tripoli and signed an agreement to help Libya build nuclear power stations but did not mention arms deals. Instead, he heralded the prisoners' release as a triumph of French and European diplomacy. News that EADS, 15 per cent of which is owned by the French government, had "finalised" the deal to sell French-designed Milan anti-tank missiles came two days after Saif ul-Islam Gadafy told Le Monde that his country would be buying the missiles from France. He also said he did not believe the health workers were guilty and called them "scapegoats".
His comments led to renewed demands for Mr Sarkozy to declare what Libya had been promised. The French government portrayed the deal as "an agreement between a company and a country", which it says was on the cards for months.
EADS said the deal was with a subsidiary, MBDA, and was awaiting Libya's signature. MBDA, which makes missiles, is a joint venture between EADS, Britain's BAE Systems and the Italian arms firm Finmeccanica.
A spokesman for Mr Sarkozy told Le Parisiennewspaper: "Should we reproach national firms for winning business with a partner, Libya, which respects its international obligations?" However, Libya is playing it up as a bilateral deal with France marking the country's return to the international fold.
Mr Hollande told French radio: "We were told there was no bartering. Then we learn there was a civil contract over a nuclear reactor . . . There's a real problem with method here."