World Bulletin / News Desk

Gabonese intelligence wiretapped EU election observers who voiced grave doubts over the outcome of hotly disputed August 27 polls in the oil-rich central African nation, a French weekly reported Sunday.

It said the wiretaps of some members of the 73-strong EU observer team "reveal heavy suspicions that the results were rigged".

The announcement that incumbent Ali Bongo won the vote with a razor-thin margin sparked two days of rioting and looting that left three dead in the former French colony, according to the government.

The opposition said dozens died in the unrest, during which some 800 people were arrested.

On one recording quoted by JDD, an unidentified EU observer is heard to say: "They are trying to work out how to cheat in a way that's not too obvious."

He adds: "Ballot boxes are on their way to (the capital) Libreville and will make the difference."

Gabonese Communications Minister Alain-Claude Bilie Ny Nze dismissed the report Sunday as "trickery aimed at covering up the involvement of some European Union observers in favour of the opposition".

The EU mission was "neither neutral nor impartial," Bilie By Nze told AFP.

The JDD report said the man in charge of security for the EU mission, named as Pierre B., was the "main target" of the wiretaps.