For more than three months, French judges have been struggling to make sense of a labyrinth of murky deals linking several players from the 1990s Parisian elite and a massive arms shipment to a war-torn African country.

The case is based on a lengthy inquiry, but the judges' jobs have been made harder since the start of formal trial hearings, as many suspects and witnesses have backtracked on earlier testimony or taken vows of silence.

Certain facts seem not to be in doubt.

Russian-born Israeli businessman Arkadi Gaydamak and French associate Pierre Falcone shipped 790 million dollars worth of weapons to Angola in the 1990s.

The huge arsenal -- 420 tanks, 150,000 shells, 170,000 anti-personnel mines, 12 helicopters, six warships -- shored up President Eduardo Dos Santos' regime during its vicious bush war against the UNITA rebels.

Prosecutors claim the arms shipment was in itself illegal, although the main defendants dispute this, and allege many millions of dollars were skimmed off the contract to pay bribes to senior French and Angolan figures.

The scandal poisoned relations between France and Angola, where Paris hopes to develop massive oil contracts, and President Nicolas Sarkozy was forced to fly to Luanda in May to mend fences. The trial, however, continues.

Chief judge Jean-Baptiste Parlos has so far found it difficult to get any clear testimony from the 42 defendants.

Despite a promise to come and explain his role, Gaydamak has remained in Israel. He is said to have used his contacts in Eastern Europe to get his hands on the Soviet-designed weapons that were shipped to Luanda.

Gaydamak owns Israeli football champions Beitar Jerusalem and his son Alexandre controls Portsmouth in the English Premiership, which has denied Israeli press reports that the father is in fact bankrolling the club.

Falcone, who was born in Algeria and holds French, Canadian and Angolan citizenship, is in France, but he too has refused to talk.

In 2003, Dos Santos named him Angola's ambassador to the United Nations cultural organisation UNESCO, which is based in Paris, and he thus claims diplomatic immunity and refuses to discuss Angolan "state secrets".

His lawyers argue French judges have no grounds to investigate a deal in Angola, and have produced a letter from France's current defence minister, Herve Morin, arguing that the arms shipment was not illegal.

Alongside the alleged arms traffickers, dozens more defendants are accused of receiving kickbacks, and they have not proved any more talkative.

The son of former president Francois Mitterrand, Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, and the businessman and thriller writer Paul-Loup Sulitzer received millions of euros in payments for acting as vaguely-defined "consultants" for the deal.

Both men insist they were simply paid fair sums for their contribution.

Falcone's former secretary at his Parisian consultancy Brenco, Isabelle Delubac, was a useful source for investigators, who seized several documents from her home. In court, she has been much less forthcoming.

Her stock response when asked about illicit payments has been: "It's possible, but I don't remember."

Jacques Pascal, an architect who was employed to refurbish Brenco's elegant west Paris offices, told the inquiry that he had personally seen "bundles of cash on shelves" on the premises.

In court, he backed off, saying that he had simply "heard about" the money.

Another witness, Jean-Bernard Curial, the Socialist Party's former adviser on African affairs, once claimed that his life had been threatened when Falcone and Gaydamak suspected him of talking to the press.

Testifying, however, he said: "I was angry when I said that."

Curial told investigators that when he had become involved in the arms deals he had "gone a bit crazy when he discovered the world of easy money". In court, he insisted he was motivated by his "humanitarian spirit" towards Angola.

With the case stagnating, hearings have been put on hold until the New Year, when president Mitterrand's adviser Jacques Attali will take the stand. The trial is due to end on March 5.

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