Leading French Candidate Sarkozy Denies Deal To Save Chirac From Prosecution

PARIS — Nicolas Sarkozy, the favorite to become France's new president, denied allegations yesterday that he had struck a deal with the outgoing president to protect him from prosecution in return for his support.

After weeks of speculation, a report in the Paris-based satirical magazine Le Canard Enchaine claimed that Mr. Sarkozy agreed to help President Chirac, so long as the current president backed Mr. Sarkozy as his successor.

Mr. Chirac, who became president in 1995, has been linked with a number of scandals, but presidential immunity has protected him throughout his two terms.

Quoting sources close to the president, the weekly magazine alleged that "in exchange for Mr. Chirac's support for his candidacy, Mr. Sarkozy made a commitment, if he wins, to avoid any judicial backlash for Chirac."

Rather than a specific amnesty for corruption cases, Mr. Sarkozy, 52, would introduce a provision as part of a new anti-crime bill that would set a 10-year limit on the time a judge has to close a case, the magazine claimed.

The measure would close the book on three corruption cases that date back more than 10 years, when Mr. Chirac was mayor of Paris between 1977 and 1995.

Two cases deal with the alleged illegal use of Paris city funds to pay staff and sympathizers of Chirac's Rally for the Republic Party, or RPR, the predecessor of the governing Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP.

A third case surrounds a Paris printing firm, suspected of rigging public tender contracts and funding the RPR.

Responding to the allegations, Mr. Sarkozy said: "It's grotesque, it's hurtful and it's untrue.

"I deny it in the firmest and fullest terms."