Danielle Mitterrand was questioned over her son's activities

He allegedly received a payment in 1997 of $1.8m into a Swiss bank account from Brenco.

He said the payment was not linked to arms and his links to Pierre Falcone, the head of Brenco who is still in jail on charges relating to arms deals around the world, were entirely innocent.

Mr Mitterrand had also been accused of using his influence to arrange loans to pay for the arms at the height of Angola's civil war.

He was arrested late last year but was released in early January when his mother, Danielle Mitterrand, paid five million francs bail.

Mitterrand legacy

After his release on bail in January, he told French television that the judges held a personal vendetta against him and his family.

"How can you not see that, when a judge sweats with hatred every time he opens his mouth, how can you not see that you are being sent to the Bastille," he said.

The Angola-gate case as it has come to be known, is one of a number of high-profile scandals which have emerged from the Mitterrand era.

Roland Dumas, a former foreign minister under President Mitterrand, was convicted on charges of illegally receiving public funds last month in a case relating to corruption in the state-owned Elf oil company.