Monique Olivier has retracted some claims made against her husband

Belgian investigators said Monique Olivier had also retracted a number of accusations against her husband.

She was charged after she confessed to having lured three young women to her home between 1992 and 1997, knowing that Fourniret was going to kill them.

Ms Olivier, 56, was already in custody in Dinant, Belgium, accused of being an accomplice to Fourniret's crimes.

Under investigation

She confirmed she hired three young women on separate occasions to work as au pairs at her home, "knowing that Michel Fourniret was going to kill them", Belgian senior prosecutor Arnoud d'Aspremont Lynden told AFP news agency.

"She has therefore been indicted for murder," he said.

"But she has gone back on previous statements concerning the murders of six or seven young girls she had accused Michel Fourniret of murdering, without giving any explanation," he added.

Fourniret, 63, a carpenter who is also detained in Dinant, was arrested in Belgium in June 2003.

He has been charged with two murders in Belgium and is under investigation for the deaths of six girls in France.

Ms Olivier has accused him of 12 other murders, committed in Belgium and France between 1987 and 2001.