Paris - Former French interior minister Charles Pasqua, convicted last month of influence peddling in an illicit arms sale to Angola, said Thursday that ex-president Jacques Chirac had known of and approved the deal.

"In December 1995, Jacques Chirac, Dominique de Villepin (then the head of Chirac's office) and (former defence minister) Charles Millon were informed of the sale of arms to Angola," Pasqua told journalists in Paris.

"This operation was made with the backing of the president."

The affair involved the sale of arms worth about 790 million dollars from the former Soviet Union to the government of Angola from 1993 to 1998, while a civil war was raging in that country.

On October 27 Pasqua was sentenced to one year in prison for having used his position to bring the arms sellers in contact with Angolan authorities in exchange for 2.6 million dollars.

The 82-year-old Pasqua, who is currently a senator, again demanded that the ban on making information public about the deal - imposed by an Official Secrets Act - be lifted. (dpa)