President Sarkozy’s aversion to French traditions of snooping and informing have led to the creation of a new intelligence agency and a bar to investigations based on anonymous tips.

As the President moved yesterday to shake up internal intelligence he was himself accused by Dominique de Villepin, the last Prime Minister, of plotting to discredit him in a murky affair involving spies, dirty tricks and anonymous tips.

Mr Sarkozy said that he wanted to break with the dark habits of France’s past. Informers sent thousands to their deaths at the revolutionary guillotine in the 1790s and before Nazi firing squads in the early 1940s. “What is the point of explaining to our children how the Vichy State and the wartime collaboration is a dark page in our history and then accepting that tax audits and criminal investigations be launched on the basis of anonymous denunciation?” he said.

Mr Sarkozy’s creation of a Central Directorate of Internal Intelligence (DCRI) is designed to streamline and modernise the internal security services. Its main impact, however, is to dismantle the Renseignements Généraux (RG), the powerful police service which acts as the eyes and ears of the state among the public.

The biggest police spying network of any Western democracy, the RG is supposed to keep the Government informed on the life of the nation. Its officers, for example, listen to gossip in cafés and attend trade union meetings. It has often been used as tool by its political masters. Mr Sarkozy, who commanded the RG as well as the DST, the Security Service, as Interior Minister, believes that he fell victim to its machinations when it was run by Mr de Villepin in 2004.

That was the year of the Clearstream scandal, a plot to smear Mr Sarkozy and other public figures with allegations of corruption. Mr de Villepin has been charged with involvement in the conspiracy, which went public after a computer disk was sent to an investigating judge.

This is partly held to explain Mr Sarkozy’s strong distaste for France’s longstanding habit of malicious denunciation to the authorities, or la délation as it is known. This month Mr Sarkozy stirred the anger of the police, the judicial authorities and tax inspectors when he said that he would bar them from using anonymous tips to launch investigations. About 10 per cent of tax audits are started after tips — often by jealous neighbours, business rivals or cheated spouses.

Mr de Villepin’s charge yesterday against Mr Sarkozy was the latest episode in a saga of revenge and skullduggery involving politicians, spies and businessmen in the highest reaches of the Establishment. Mr de Villepin made his accusation to investigating judges who questioned him about his role in the Clearstream scandal. Mr de Villepin, who was a Cabinet colleague of Mr Sarkozy when the scandal broke, has already been charged with trying to incriminate him with forged bank records recording millions of pounds in bribes. His new defence is to turn the tables and depict himself as the victim.

“If I had an interest in blackening Nicolas Sarkozy, it can surely be imagined that Nicolas Sarkozy had an interest in blackening me,” he told the judges in a 23-page written defence that was leaked to the media.

“What is remarkable is the energy with which Nicolas Sarkozy made himself out to be the victim — indeed the only victim — of the affair, and at the same time the speed with which accusations were launched against me,” Mr de Villepin said.

Mr Sarkozy had privatised for his own purposes the investigation into the circulation of the false accounts from the Clearstream clearing bank of Luxembourg, he added. Mr Sarkozy whipped up a scandal over the false accounts for his own ends in 2004 at a time when he claimed to have been ignorant of their existence, Mr de Villepin told the judges.

Mr de Villepin has raged on television this month over a prosecution that he believes has been driven by Mr Sarkozy. He is furious over police searches of his home, bail that was set at €200,000 (£13,600) and an order banning him from associating with Jacques Chirac, the former President.

Mr de Villepin has also called Mr Sarkozy a showman who is surrounded by “shoeshiners and courtiers”. According to media reports, he has vowed revenge, telling friends: “I am going to do to Sarkozy what Sarkozy did to Chirac.” The President’s aides shrugged off Mr de Villepin’s offensive as the ranting of a loser.

Mr de Villepin has been charged with complicity in false accusation and Mr Chirac has refused to answer investigators’ questions about his own alleged involvement in the affair. No decision on whether to send Mr de Villepin and other suspects for trial is expected for at least a year.

Times Recommends

• Putin set to bait US with nuclear aid for Tehran
• North Korea ‘uses doubles to hide death of Kim’
• Academics label Charlie Wilson too 'gung-ho'