France, Feb. 18 -- French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has vowed to support an investigation into decades of alleged abuse at a Catholic school, following accusations from the left that he misled parliament by claiming he was unaware of the case while he was a local official and education minister. Pressure on Bayrou increased on Monday after a lawyer in his home town of Pau called for an investigation into alleged "obstruction of justice".

Bayrou has survived severalvotes of no-confidence since taking office in mid-December. But he now faces scrutiny over allegations of physical and sexual abuse at Notre-Dame de Betharram - a Catholic boarding school in the Pyrenees where he sent several of his children.

In 1996, when Bayrou was educ...