Former French president Jacques Chirac is being questioned by judges today in an investigation into a fake jobs scandal.
Mr Chirac is being questioned as a material witness in his Paris offices in the presence of his lawyer.
The inquiry concerns a fake jobs scheme used to finance Mr Chirac's conservative party while he was mayor of Paris - before he became president in 1995.
Former French president Jacques Chirac
In a commentary published in Le Monde,Mr Chirac said he was willing to respond to investigators. "I am ready to testify and to respond. Testifying before [public] opinion, responding to the judges. In both cases, I will do it in good faith," he wrote.
Mr Chirac has consistently denied any wrongdoing during his 18 years as mayor of the French capital from 1977-95.
Judge Alain Philibeaux, from the court in Nanterre near Paris, had been interviewing Mr Chirac as an "assisted witness" since this morning, a spokeswoman for the former president said, adding the hearing was still under way.
The "assisted witness" status means he could later become the subject of a "formal investigation" if new evidence comes to light.
Mr Chirac 's lawyer said last month that his client, who lost his immunity from prosecution on June 16th, one month after leaving office, would not meet judges over any cases involving him during his 1995-2007 presidency.
He could face questioning on a number of cases, but the only dossier explicitly to target him dates back to December 2002 and involves fraudulent payments allegedly made to members of Mr Chirac 's conservative Rally for the Republic party by the City of Paris.
Mr Chirac wrote in Le Mondehe would tell investigators that party financing had been in a legal no-man's land for much of the period in which he was running Paris and said all parties had been affected by this.
"The politicians in charge at the time acted with integrity and with the general interest at heart," he said.