AFP - French prosecutors said Tuesday they have called for judges to drop corruption charges against former president Jacques Chirac, who is accused of misusing city funds when he was Paris mayor.
  
A French judge wrapped up a probe in April into allegations that municipal funds were used to give fake "ghost jobs" to members of Chirac's RPR party while he was mayor of the capital from 1977 to 1995, officials said.
  
The now 77-year-old Chirac was charged in November 2007 in the case along with five former city hall chiefs of staff and a dozen other people, becoming the first former French president to be put under judicial investigation.
  
But the Paris prosecutor's office said Tuesday it has called for the case to be thrown out, arguing there was insufficient evidence of misuse of funds after 1992, and that the statute of limitations had expired for prior events.
  
Judge Xaviere Simeoni now has until the end of October to decide whether to send the case to trial.
  
Contacted by AFP, Chirac's lawyer Jean Veil refused to comment, saying he had yet to be officially notified of the prosecutor's decision.
  
Chirac stood down as mayor of Paris in 1995 when he became president. He lost his presidential immunity from prosecution after President Nicolas Sarkozy's election in May 2007.
  
Former aides to Chirac have defended him against allegations that he presided over a system of illegal money-raising for his party, the Rally for the Republic (RPR).