Omar Bongo, Gabon's president for 35 years, secured a constitutional change that could let him remain in power indefinitely.

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El Hadj Omar Bongo, the president of oil-rich Gabon exposed in 1997 during France's notorious Elf Aquitaine bribery scandal, was a private banking client dating back to 1970.

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In an interview with French television on Monday, he also alleged that the former head of the far-right National Front party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, funded part of his 1988 presidential campaign with money from Gabon's late ex-president Omar Bongo, AFP reports.

BBC: Dominique de Villepin and Jacques Chirac in 2007