French minister on defensive over Tunisian jet rides

Sat Feb 5, 2011 8:15pm GMT

[-] Text [+]

* Minister took several rides in businessman's jet

* Alliot-Marie insists she did nothing wrong

MUNICH, Feb 5 (Reuters) - France's foreign minister acknowledged on Saturday she had accepted several rides on a Tunisian businessman's jet as she defended herself for taking holidays in the country shortly before its uprising.

Michele Alliot-Marie was forced to reject calls for her resignation on prime time television this week for her holidays in the country in December and accepting a 20-minute ride in a Tunisian friend's jet to get to a seaside resort.

Speaking on the sidelines of the security conference in Munich, she said that she had also accepted to ride in the friend's jet during an excursion into the country's interior.

But she said she had already revealed the second trip on television this week in references to "other excursions" during the holiday.

"I don't think I made any particular mistake," Alliot-Marie told reporters, saying she had paid for the costs of the holiday herself except for the hotels which her parents, who were travelling with her and her partner, paid for.

"I did nothing wrong, neither politically, legally nor, I think, morally," she said. Continued...

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