France's prime minister dropped a political bombshell on his government Tuesday, admitting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak lent him and his family a plane during a New Year's holiday in Egypt. The revelation came as France's foreign minister battled calls for her resignation for travelling during a New Year's holiday in a private plane owned by a businessman allegedly close to relatives of Tunisia's ousted dictator.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon's office quickly issued a statement after the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine broke the story about his trip to Egypt, where 300 people have been killed in protests seeking to oust Mubarak. The statement said the prime minister "at the invitation of the Egyptian authorities" had "used a plane from the Egyptian government fleet to travel from Aswan to Abu Simbel."
The statement said Fillon met Mubarak in the southern city of Aswan on December 30. "He (Fillon) also embarked on a boat trip on the Nile in the same conditions," meaning also at the expense of the Egyptian authorities, it said. Fillon and his family were "lodged by the Egyptian authorities" during their trip to Egypt, which lasted from December 26 until January 2, it said. It noted that the prime minister was making this information public "in the interests of transparency."
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