Taipei  - Taiwan's former first lady Wu Shu-chen Tuesday denied that she had embezzled government money during a face-off with a defendant-turned-witness at a Taipei trial.

"All the money was used by president Chen for public events and secret diplomatic missions," said Wu, who was charged along with her husband Chen Shui-bian with embezzlement, acceptance of bribes, money laundering and document forgery.

Wu, who admitted to money laundering and document forgery in pretrial hearings, said she simply collected the money from the ex-president's chief treasurer Chen Cheng-hui and handed it to her husband.

She said the court should interrogate Chen Cheng-hui over how she accounted for the funding claims and did the bookkeeping.

Chen Cheng-hui, who pleaded guilty to embezzlement and money laundering charges after agreeing to take the witness stand, however, said she was instructed by Wu and two other former chief aides of the ex-president in making all the funding claims.

Asked by the court if she had wired part of the special state funds abroad for money laundering, Wu insisted none of the funds she had remitted abroad came from illegal sources.

"All were the money I have saved, left over from previous political donations, gains from stock investments, and gains from the former law office started by the ex-president," she said.

Wu was charged along with her husband and 12 others, including several family member, s with laundering more than 37 million US dollars, embezzling 3 million US dollars of special state funds, taking 14.4 million US dollars in bribes from local businessmen and other offences.

Chen Shui-bian served as president from 2000 to 2008. (dpa)