THE future of Dominique de Villepin, Prime Minister of France, remained unclear yesterday as his chief party rival Nicolas Sarkozy gave evidence in the Clearstream affair.

The scandal involves bogus papers implicating M Sarkozy, the Interior Minister, and other politicians in bribe-taking. Judges are trying to find the author of the fabrication.

M Sarkozy spent two hours giving his version of events. He said: “I was received by the magistrates as a victim. I told them I wanted the truth and that I had confidence in them.”

Last week M de Villepin was forced to acknowledge that he had ordered a secret investigation into the papers in January 2004 while he was Foreign Minister — several months before the affair became public.

Although he denied that he had ordered General Philippe Rondot to focus on M Sarkozy’s supposed involvement, he failed to convince many in his party.

Yesterday he tried to follow a normal routine, including talks with Tony Blair. The Elysée Palace said President Chirac was standing by his protégé. But anger was rising within M Chirac’s Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), particularly after M de Villepin failed to address the scandal yesterday during a meeting with MPs.

Some want him replaced as Prime Minister by M Sarkozy. A backbencher, Jean-Paul Anciaux, said: “Either the President decides to dismiss the Prime Minister or the Prime Minister decides to resign. It is impossible that nothing happens.” Yet most of M Sarkozy’s allies are said to be discouraging him from accepting the Prime Minister’s post, if offered, because it could destroy his chances next May of winning the presidency with a manifesto for reform.

They say M de Villepin’s authority has been demolished by the affair and his handling of the protests against his employment law reforms.

François Fillon, a former minister, said: “Either the Prime Minister can produce proof that the affair was a fabrication and he had no hand in it, or the President must draw the consequences and change Prime Minister. One cannot run a Government with this kind of doubt weighing on one.”

• President Chirac denied last night that he had a secret bank account in Japan, an allegation made during the Clearstream investigation. Le Canard Enchaîné, the satirical weekly, reported that General Rondot had told judges that since 1992 M Chirac had had a bank account in Japan containing Euros €46 million (£31.4 million). The President categorically denies the information reported by Canard Enchaîné,” a source close to M Chirac said.

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