This is barbaric - I'm 74 years old

Alfred Sirven, as he was handcuffed in Manila

Mr Sirven, 74, formerly number two at the then French state-owned Elf oil company, has been accused of running a special fund to buy influence with French politicians.

He says he is prepared to return home to face corruption charges himself.

Potential hitch

Mr Sirven, who has spent the past three years on the run, was arrested on Friday in the Philippine capital Manila.

He was deported to Germany, where he was detained at the airport and notified of the international arrest warrants before appearing in front of a judge in Frankfurt.

Sirven: Mobbed by the media on arrival in Manila

Mr Sirven is the alleged pay-master of a multi-million-dollar slush fund at Elf and is widely considered to be the missing link in the corruption trial of Roland Dumas.

His detention in Germany was unexpected. It was thought that he would be put on board a French air force plane and taken immediately to Paris.

German prosecutors are interested in hearing Mr Sirven testify on alleged kickbacks paid when the east German company, Leuna, was sold to Elf in 1992.

Magistrates suspect the funds were partially used to finance the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) when it was run by former chancellor Helmut Kohl.

On the run

In France, Mr Dumas and his former lover are being tried for bribery and misuse of public funds, along with a number of former Elf executives.

Roland Dumas was forced to resign as France's Foreign Minister

Mr Sirven, who until now was being tried in absentia, said on his arrest in Manila that he had done nothing wrong, and was the victim of a frame-up.

"This is barbaric," he said, as investigators in Manila handcuffed him. "I'm 74-years-old. I won't fly away. It is forbidden."

Mr Sirven is reported to have entered the country using the passport of a dead man, and to have been living at the Tagaytay resort with his Filipina wife, Vilma Medina, the mother of his late wife's nurse.

Philippines Justice Secretary, Hernando Perez, said French officials believe Sirven left France with about 19 billion pesos - nearly $400m - in company funds.

The self-described "Whore of the Republic" Christine Deviers-Joncour

The on-going corruption trial in Paris - involving alleged bribes of billions of francs - is one of the biggest in France in recent years and part of a wider scandal involving the sale of French warships to Taiwan.

Mr Dumas is accused of benefiting from more than $9m that his lover, Ms Deviers-Joncour, was paid by Elf, for her work as a consultant and lobbyist - a job that he allegedly secured for her.

Mr Dumas was forced to resign as president of France's highest court after the 53-year-old former lingerie model published a book, The Whore of the Republic, giving her version of the scandal.

Mr Dumas faces up to five years in prison and a hefty fine.