Jacques Chirac illegal party funding trial due to kick off in Paris

Chirac, who denies the charges, has asked the Paris court for his lawyers to be allowed to represent him. He is the first French former leader to stand trial since World War II.

However, there are doubts whether the trial can go ahead as planned after a medical report found that Chirac, 78, is suffering memory lapses.

Analysts report that if the trial goes ahead, it will likely be in Chirac's absence.

Chirac, mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995, stands accused on two counts of paying members of his Rally for the Republic (RPR) party for municipal jobs that did not exist. If found guilty he faces up to 10 years in jail and a fine of €150,000.

The first charge accuses Chirac of embezzlement and breach of trust relating to 21 dubbed "ghost jobs".

The second charge resulted from a separate investigation in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, involving an illegal conflict of interest relating to seven ‘ghost’ jobs.

Despite persistent rumours of wrongdoing, Chirac was immune from prosecution while he was president from 1995 to 2007.

But after years of legal wrangling, he and nine other defendants finally went on trial in March.

However, on the second day of the trial a lawyer representing Chirac's former chief of staff at city hall, Remy Chardon, challenged the two cases being brought together.

Chardon argued that the statute of limitations had expired in the first case. The Court of Cassation - France's highest appeals court - later ruled that the constitutional challenge was not valid.

Friends of the former president say that in recent months he has been subject to embarrassing lapses of memory. His mind wanders although he doesn't realise it, they say.

A medical report sent to the judge - drawn up at the request of Chirac's family - spelled out his condition and recommended that he be excused from attending the trial because he is not able reliably to answer questions about the past.

Judge Dominique Pauthe is expected to respond to the medical report in his opening remarks today. His options include dropping the case, postponing it or seeking further medical opinion.

Chirac is the first French former head of state to face criminal charges since Marshal Philippe Petain - leader of the collaborationist wartime regime - was convicted of treason after World War II.