The political future of Dominique de Villepin, the French Prime Minister, appeared bleak yesterday after he was questioned by judges over a plot to smear Nicolas Sarkozy, his deputy and a front-running presidential candidate.

Mr de Villepin, 53, an appointee and protégé of President Chirac, was questioned as a witness, rather than a suspect, but his summons to the Financial Crime Unit was a blow to his already battered image.

A year ago Mr de Villepin was aiming, with the encouragement of Mr Chirac, to challenge the bid by Mr Sarkozy for the presidential nomination of the Union for a Popular Majority, which the Deputy Prime Minister leads.

Mr Chirac is said to have now given up on the Prime Minister and is expected to accord a reluctant blessing to Mr Sarkozy when he receives the presidential endorsement of his party next month.

The Clearstream affair, which arose last January, involved a list of well-stocked bank accounts in a Luxembourg clearing bank in the names of public figures, including Mr Sarkozy. The list turned out to be a fabrication. Mr Sarkozy, who is Interior Minister as well as UMP leader, accused Mr de Villepin of using it to blacken his name.

The Prime Minister has acknowledged that, as Foreign Minister, he ordered a secret service general to investigate the list of accounts in January 2004. He has insisted that he was doing his ministerial duty in good faith.

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