May 25 (AFP) - A rightwing opposition bid to censure the government Tuesday over an embarrassing Corsica scandal failed after the arrest of a separatist hit-squad for the 1998 killing of France's top official on the troubled Mediterranean island. In the worst scandal faced in two years in office, the Socialist-led government this month sacked and placed behind bars its prefect on the island, Bernard Bonnet, amid reports he ordered police to set fire to a beachside restaurant. With Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin commanding a healthy majority in the National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, the censure motion only obtained 252 votes, well short of the 289 needed for a majority. The opposition had hoped to seize on the arson charges to criticise government policy in Corsica and undermine Socialist popularity ahead of the European Parliament elections next month. The state "acted like an outlaw," Francois Bayrou, head of the centrist UDF party told parliament. "If it was not informed then matters are even worse." Laurent Dominati, another UDF politician, said the government was "like the three little monkeys, who see no evil, hear no evil and, above all, say nothing." Jospin told the house: "No one could seriously imagine that my government could have ordered, inspired, been aware of or covered such acts." The breakthrough came on the eve of the no-confidence vote when, after a 15-month inquiry, police suddenly squeezed confessions from hardline Corsican separatists who admitted to forming a six-man hit-squad to murder Bonnet's predecessor, Claude Erignac, in February of last year. Alain Madelin, head of the rightwing Liberal Democracy party, said he was "somewhat irritated to see the police success" turned "into a sort of smokescreen covering up the state's responsibility" in the arson attack. He said the arrest of Erignac's murderers should in no way affect the government's accountability in Bonnet's alleged misdemeanours. "You don't tolerate drugs in cycling just because you won the World Cup," he said on French radio. Ironically, Bonnet, who is in jail facing complicity for arson, was dispatched to Corsica after his predecessor's February 6 murder to restore the rule of law on the crime- and corruption-wracked island. The sacked official is reported to have grown increasingly frustrated with local resistance to his clean-up drive. The restaurant set ablaze was illegally built and operating without a permit. With Corsica almost a byword in France for financial and political fraud, there has been little grassroots backing for opposition demands that ministerial heads roll on the grounds that cabinet members were involved in the arson or should accept responsibility for the prefect's alleged illicit action. Jospin's popularity has remained untouched by the scandal, soaring to around 60 percent according to opinion polls. Bonnet has claimed he acted alone and has absolved the government of all knowledge of his scheme to burn down restaurants built without permits. "The government is not responsible for these lost soldiers," said Socialist group leader Jean-Marc Ayrault, referring to the special police squad involved in the arson attack. "The government is responsible for its policies, which today in Corsica are succeeding." Police meanwhile issued an arrest warrant for a shepherd suspected of firing the bullets in the 1998 hit-squad killing -- Yvan Colonna, son of a former Socialist parliamentarian. Colonna is believed to have fired the three bullets to the back of the head that killed Erignac, sending shockwaves across France. Corsica has been the scene of dozens of killings and some 10,000 terrorist attacks in a quarter-century of separatist violence, but Erignac was the seniormost official in memory to be gunned down. Five other radical Corsican nationalists were being questioned by police, four of whom are said to have confessed Monday to being part of the squad who killed Erignac in a bid to inflame tension and win supporters to their separatist cause. Police traced Erignac's alleged killers after a detailed inquiry into calls made by mobile telephones in the heart of downtown Ajaccio, the island's capital, during the 80 minutes before and after his 9:00 p.m. murder there. -=-=- 