PARIS - Lawyers for former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin accused prosecutors Wednesday of building a case to please the "pernicious prince" Nicolas Sarkozy and called for an acquittal.

Villepin is accused of conspiring in 2004 to smear his longtime rival Sarkozy and derail his presidential bid at a time when the two men were manoeuvring to succeed president Jacques Chirac.

Delivering closing arguments in the sensational trial, defense lawyer Luc Brosselet attacked a "schizophrenic" case against Villepin that he said hinged on shaky evidence from unreliable witnesses.

"Since the beginning, this case bears the mark of one man and shows the desire of a pernicious prince," Brosselet said in a clear reference to Sarkozy.

"This case would not be here if Nicolas Sarkozy were not concerned and considered himself a victim," he said.

Prosecutors on Tuesday called for an 18-month suspended sentence and a 45,000-euro (67,000-dollar) fine against Villepin, the 55-year-old diplomat who also served as foreign and interior minister under Chirac.

The complex case centres on a fake list of account holders from the Clearstream financial clearing house who were said to have received kickbacks from the sale of French warships to Taiwan.

Sarkozy's name ended up on the bogus list and the president's lawyer has named Villepin as the prime instigator of a plot to block Sarkozy from winning the governing party's nomination to succeed Chirac.

Taking a different tack, prosecutors have argued that Villepin had not actively taken part in the plot to slander Sarkozy but that he had failed to take action to stop the conspiracy and was therefore an "accomplice through silence".

In his statement, chief defence counsel Olivier Metzner said "no one in France has ever been convicted for having done nothing" and argued that there was "no material evidence" to support this accusation.

Defence lawyers argued that the case against Villepin rested mostly on testimony from two co-defendants -- Jean-Louis Gergorin and Imad Lahoud -- even though prosecutors had said that the two had lied throughout the investigation.

They also took aim at former spymaster General Philippe Rondot whose notes, seized by investigators and allegedly showing that Villepin wanted to nail Sarkozy, are considered a key piece of evidence.

"These notes were a fantasy, from beginning to end," Brosselet said.

"No one cares about Gergorin and Lahoud in this case," said Henri Leclerc, a prominent human rights lawyer on the defence team. "It's all about Dominique de Villepin."

"They wanted his head," Leclerc said, referring to comments reportedly made by Sarkozy. "He had to be hung by a butcher's hook, he had to be pulverised."

Leclerc urged judges to acquit Villepin, saying they had "to defend the honour of the republic's justice".

The trial opened a month ago in the courtroom where Marie Antoinette was sentenced to the guillotine in 1793, with Villepin accusing Sarkozy of pursuing a personal vendetta against him.

Sarkozy is one of the 39 civil plaintiffs in the case that has exposed the murky dealings of France's political elite with the secret services and industry.

The trial ends Friday but judges are not expected to give their verdict before January.

Villepin is charged with complicity to slander, complicity to use forgeries, dealing in stolen property and breach of trust.

An acquittal for Villepin, best known for leading the charge against the 2003 US invasion of Iraq at the United Nations, would allow him to re-launch his political career.