French oil company Total is to be investigated over accusations of corruption relating to Iraq's oil-for-food programme.
A French judge has filed preliminary charges accusing Total of bribing Iraqi officials while Saddam Hussein was in power in order to secure oil supplies.
The BBC reports the investigation came as a surprise as the case previously appeared to be flimsy.
Total insists it abided by the rules of the UN-sponsored programme.
The oil-for-food programme was established by the United Nations to allow Iraq to sell small amounts of oil while still under a trade embargo, which was imposed after the 1991 Gulf war that evicted Saddam's troops from Kuwait.
In exchange, Iraq received humanitarian aid. But it has since been established that the Iraqi government benefited financially from the scheme, receiving bribes in exchange for securing oil contracts.
The programme was wound up in November 2003, after Saddam's regime in Iraq was ousted.
In 2005, a UN report indicated that about 2000 companies were involved in illegally bribing officials using the programme.
