DAKAR (AFP) - Senegalese police on Wednesday detained former interior minister Ousmane Ngom for questioning amid a probe by the new regime into graft by officials from the previous government.

"Police officers went to Kolda (south) to take him in," a police source said without giving the reasons for Ngom's detention.

The ex-interior minister, with the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) was taken in by an elite police unit in the southern Senegalese town of Kolda where he was campaigning ahead of July 1 legislative polls.

"He was not ill-treated by police," reported the Senegalese news agency APS.

Ngom was among several officials from Abdoulaye Wade's former regime who were recently summoned for questioning in relation to a probe into ill-gotten gains.

However he had left the courthouse after a long wait to be questioned.

He then said he would not comply with any police summons before the holding of the legislative elections, urging other former regime officials to follow suit.

Ngom came under fire during March presidential elections for the repression of opposition protests which sparked near-daily riots in Dakar amid anger over Wade's disputed bid for a third term in office which left about six dead.

Wade was roundly beaten at the ballot box by Macky Sall in a second round of voting.

Sall's new government recently opened a special court to look into fraud and ill-gotten gains.