A FRANCO-Lebanese businessman who has been implicated in some of France’s biggest arms scandals has claimed he has proof that former president Nicolas Sarkozy received €50million (£40million) in funding from former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Businessman Ziad Takieddine told a French judge that Mr Sarkozy received the money during his 2007 presidential campaign and after the election, from the former dictator, according to a report in the French daily newspaper Le Parisien.

Similar claims, all denied by Mr Sarkozy, have been made by Saif-Al Islam Gaddafi, one of Mr Gaddafi’s sons, and a French investigative website.

Mr Takieddine, a fixer for legal and allegedly illegal dealings between France and the Middle East, alleged Mr Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign was “abundantly” funded by Gaddafi from December 2006 and that the flow of money continued after he became president.

The businessman said he was willing to produce proof of his claims if a judicial investigation was launched into Libya’s financing of French politicians.

Claude Gueant, a former interior minister, and his son were also said to have been involved with the generous Gaddafi handouts, according to Mr Takieddine, who is accused of receiving illegal kickbacks on French arms deals to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and was being questioned by a French judge about those deals when he made his claims.

He told the judge that the bulk of the money was paid between December 2006 and January 2007 and he could supply the paperwork to back up his claims.

“Yes, Libya financed Sarkozy,” he told Le Parisien.

The allegations have been discounted as “outrageous” and “self-interested” by sources close to Mr Sarkozy.

French law bans candidates from receiving cash payments above £6,300.