OTTAWA (AFP) - Former prime minister Brian Mulroney allegedly tried to hide cash payments of 300,000 dollars he received from an arms dealer now facing charges in Germany, said Canada's public broadcaster Wednesday.

In an interview with CBC, Karlheinz Schreiber said Mulroney had asked him for a letter stating that "at no time did he ever solicit or receive" money from Schreiber.

On the advice of his lawyer, Schreiber declined his former associate's request, he said.

In 1995, federal police had accused Mulroney of accepting kickbacks from Schreiber while Mulroney was in office for the purchase Airbus jets for carrier Air Canada.

Mulroney subsequently sued the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for libel, and under oath, denied any dealings with Schreiber. He received a government apology and a two-million dollar settlement and the case was closed.

Meanwhile, a scandal erupted in Germany over payments Schreiber had made from secret bank accounts in Switzerland to prominent people there.

Schreiber would later say in court documents that Mulroney had indeed accepted three secret cash payments at hotel meetings in New York and Montreal shortly after he left office in 1993, from his Zurich account.

In return, Mulroney was supposed to help Schreiber establish a light-armored vehicle factory for the European firm Thyssen AG, and promote Schreiber's burgeoning pasta business, Reto Restaurant Systems International.

Schreiber has been fighting extradition to Germany to face charges for his alleged role in a campaign finance scandal involving former German chancellor Helmut Kohl's Christian Democratic Union party and commissions earned for negotiating arms sales.

He has fought the German extradition request ever since he was first arrested in Canada in August 1999 on a provisional warrant.