Former Prime Minister of France Mr Alain Juppe has been given a suspended jail sentence for political corruption.

He was found guilty of wrongdoing in a scam in which Paris City Hall funds were used to pay political party allies in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence.

The court in Nanterre outside Paris also barred him from public office for life, putting paid to his hopes of becoming president in 2007.

Mr Juppe had been expected to run for president if Jacques Chirac does not seek a third term in 2007. The ruling could cause upheaval in Mr Chirac's Union for the Presidential Majority (UMP), two months before regional elections.