French President Jacques Chirac, dogged by judicial investigations into lavish trips he paid for in cash, struck back today, saying the travel was all legal and settled with banknotes for security reasons.
"The trips were made legally. They were invoiced...and they were paid for out of my personal allowances", Mr Chirac said in a television interview on Bastille Day.
"I have nothing to hide", he added.
He denounced what he called a climate of suspicion, rumour and manipulation that he said was damaging democracy and French interests.
Mr Chirac has been haunted for weeks by controversy over lavish trips paid for with cash from 1992 to 1995 during his time as mayor of Paris. He has refused to be questioned by magistrates, citing presidential immunity.
Mr Chirac's daughter Claude was questioned last week about several trips, including a weekend flight on Concorde with her father to New York in 1993. He said the decision to summon her was scandalous .