Maurice Papon, the only French Nazi official to be convicted for his role in the deportation of Jews during World War Two, died on Saturday aged 96, police sources said. He was a successful post-war politician who became a minister before his past caught up with him.

Papon was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1998 for complicity in crimes against humanity. He fled to Switzerland while appealing against his sentence, but was arrested by Swiss police and handed over to the French authorities. He was jailed in 1999 before being released in September 2002 because of poor health.

Benjamin Abtan, president of the French association of Jewish students said: ?Papon could die quietly ? that was not the case for all those he sent to their deaths. We will remember him not just as a criminal but also as a symbol of the responsibility of the French state in the attempt to destroy Jews in Europe.? Papon insisted he knew nothing of the Holocaust at the time.

<B>Danielle ROQUE Marcel MICHELSON</B>