A French court said on Friday, July 8, it is delaying until August 4 its decision on whether to launch a legal inquiry into the role of IMF chief Christine Lagarde in a 2008 arbitration payout.

According to Reuters, an official at the Court of Justice of the Republic read a statement to reporters saying that the decision had been postponed for a second time.

Lagarde, French finance minister until she took up her IMF post this week, has denied any misconduct in her approval of a 285 million-euro payment to a businessman friend of President Nicolas Sarkozy to settle a dispute with a former state-owned bank.