IMF chief Christine Lagarde is to stand trial in France for alleged negligence over a €400m (£291m; $434m) payment to a businessman in 2008, local media say.

Lagarde, 59, was finance minister in President Nicolas Sarkozy's government at the time of the compensation award to businessman Bernard Tapie.

Tapie supported Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election.

Tapie was once a majority shareholder in Adidas but sold it in 1993 to become a cabinet minister.

He sued the Credit Lyonnais bank over its handling of the sale, alleging the partly state-owned bank had defrauded him by deliberately undervaluing the company.

(BBC)