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The details might never have been made public had some of Congo-Brazzaville’s creditors not been pursuing the country through US and British courts over repayment of debts.

Among the creditors was a US investment fund, Elliott Management, which owns more than $100m of Congo-Brazzaville debt. Sassou-Nguesso’s hotel bills were among documents subpoenaed by Elliott lawyers.

Congo-Brazzaville’s UN mission did not respond to requests for comment on the hotel bills last week. In the past Sassou-Nguesso has denounced so-called “vulture” investment funds that buy up Third World debt at a discount. He has also pledged to the World Bank and the IMF his willingness to co-operate in financial reforms.

Yet two British High Court judges both concluded in separate cases two months ago that senior Congo officials had “put forward dishonest oral evidence” and “failed to disclose relevant documents” in cases involving old debts.

In a case brought by Kensington International, a UK-based Elliott affiliate, Mr Justice Cooke ruled that senior Congolese officials had sought to hide the profits from oil transactions so that creditors could not seize them.

He found that Denis Gokana, the head of the state oil company and a special adviser to the president, had set up “sham” companies to “conceal the true facts” of the sale of a $39m oil shipment to a British trader, Glencore Energy UK, which sold the oil on to BP.

The judge found that by filtering the state’s oil through a network of bogus traders, Gokana and his political masters were trying to prevent creditors from seizing Congo-Brazzaville assets, and were making millions of dollars for their companies in the process. “In my judgment, such conduct is dishonest,” the judge ruled.

For anti-corruption campaigners, the British ruling in favour of Kensington was further evidence that despite Blair’s enthusiasm for debt relief — and the high-profile campaigning of rock stars such as Bono — writing off Congo-Brazzaville’s debts may entrench corruption.

World Bank sources said Wolfowitz was perturbed by the Congo-Brazzaville case, but he is under pressure from the French to approve a debt relief package.

Jay Newman of Elliott Management noted that the president’s hotel suite cost “more per day than the average Congolese makes in a decade”.

Newman added: “It is oh-so-chic to rock out with Bono and Kofi Annan (the UN secretary-general) and there may be instances in which debt forgiveness makes sense.

“But rather than forgiveness, for some countries the right answers are political sanctions and, when warranted, criminal prosecutions.”

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