Dominique de Villepin, followed by his wife Marie-Laure, arrives at the Paris courthouse on Monday for the start of a slander trial involving French President Nicolas Sarkozy. (Francois Mori/Associated Press)

A former French prime minister accused President Nicolas Sarkozy of playing politics as a high-profile slander trial got underway in Paris on Monday.

"I am here because of the determination of one man — Nicolas Sarkozy," Dominique de Villepin said before entering the defendants' bench. He suggested Sarkozy, who is among 40 plaintiffs in the trial, was using the case as a political weapon.

Sarkozy claims Villepin was behind an alleged smear campaign aimed at thwarting Sarkozy's bid for election in the 2007 presidential.

The trial, which runs through to Oct. 21. is expected to hear 20 witnesses testify about international arms deals dating back to the early 1990s, offshore bank accounts and the French aviation and defence industries.

Villepin is accused of complicity in slander and complicity in forgery. He denies wrongdoing, but the trial could dash his political ambitions.

The complex affair dates back to 2004, when both Sarkozy and Villepin were leading conservative hopefuls to succeed President Jacques Chirac.

The case began with a mysterious list claiming to show clients who held secret accounts with Clearstream, a Luxembourg-based securities trading house, including Sarkozy and other leading French political and business figures.

The accounts were purportedly created to hold bribes from a 1991 sale of warships to Taiwan, among other shady income.

Villepin was given the list, and he asked a retired general to investigate it. It turned out to be a hoax, but was by then already circulating in political and legal circles.

The 225-page indictment says Villepin should have alerted judicial authorities to the scam earlier.

With files from The Associated Press