Malta rules out legal action against former EU Commissioner

Dalli resigned in October after OLAF, the EU's anti-fraud agency, said there was circumstantial evidence he was aware former assistant, Silvio Zammit, was seeking a bribe to arrange a meeting between him and tobacco group Swedish Match.

Swedish Match had itself told the Commission that a Maltese businessman asked it for 60 million euros ($78 million) in order to use his links to Dalli to get him to propose an end to an EU export ban on snus, a snuff that is the company's main product.

Dalli always denied the allegations and is suing the European Commission for wrongful dismissal.