Ties between Putin and Le Pen probed amid claims Front National gets Kremlin-linked funds

According to reports foreign loans accepted by France's National Front are being probed by the US

American intelligence agencies have been asked to probe Marine Le Pen's links to a Kremlin-linked bank after she requested to borrow $30m (£24.3m) to help fund her French presidential campaign.

She is believed to have asked First Czech Russian Bank (FCRB) in Moscow which is said to have close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Le Pen, president of the National Front party, has conceded she had previously accepted foreign loans. The right-wing political party argues that they need to because French banks refuse to lend them money.

Controversially, in May 2016 the 48-year-old, Le Pen said she planned to recognise Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine, as sovereign Russian territory if she wins the French presidency.

And in 2014 Le Pen's party announced plans to borrow €9m from FCRB.

Now the Le Canard Enchaîné, a French investigative and satirical weekly, reports that a US politician has urged the US director of national intelligence to take a closer look at the relationship between Putin and Le Pen.

The publication says Mike Turner, a Republican on the House of Representatives' permanent select committee on intelligence sent a letter, dated 28 November, to James Clapper, who heads up 17 American intelligence organisations and agencies, inviting him to investigate the alleged loan.

An extract from that letter says that then National Front: "publicly acknowledged that it had received a $9.8m (£7.9m) loan from a Russian bank with links to the Kremlin, allegedly brokered by a sanctioned Russian Duma deputy, according to French press reporting".

Turner continues: "In February 2016, the FN (National Front) asked Russia for a $30m (£24m) load to fund the FN leader Marine Le Pen's 2017 campaign."

According to the publication, Turner asked Clapper to find out more about Le Pen's campaign which is destined to: "Wage an information war against the United States and other countries whose interests go against those of Russia".

It was reported earlier this month that FBI director James Comey and Clapper are now in agreement with the CIA's assessment about Russia having interfered in the 2016 presidential election, in efforts to secure a Donald Trump win.