Paris prosecutors called Tuesday for former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin to face trial for his part in a smear campaign targeting President Nicolas Sarkozy, officials said.
  
Villepin, 54, has been under judicial investigation since July 2007 over the so-called Clearstream affair, suspected of conspiring to slander Sarkozy when the pair were rivals to succeed president Jacques Chirac.
  
Judges suspect Villepin of helping to orchestrate the leak in 2004 of a faked list of account-holders at the Clearstream bank in Luxembourg, which included Sarkozy's name. The named individuals were supposed to have benefited from illegal commissions from arms sales.
  
Prosecutors had moved in June to dismiss the case against Villepin for lack of evidence, but changed their mind after ordering another round of hearings.
  
It is now up to investigating judges to decide whether to order a trial.
  
Four others face possible trial: Jean-Louis Gergorin, a former vice-president at the EADS aerospace group who leaked the Clearstream lists, his associate Imad Lahoud, former management consultant Florian Bourges and the journalist Denis Robert.
  
Sarkozy has declared himself a civil plaintiff in the case, believing he was the victim of a plot to derail his bid for the presidency.
  
Villepin accuses Sarkozy of manipulating the Clearstream affair to cast himself as its victim. He insists the origins of the case are not political but industrial -- centring on an internal turf battle at EADS.
  
Since leaving office in May last year, Villepin has emerged as an outspoken opponent of Sarkozy, with whom he has always had tense relations.