Boss of former SocGen trader Kerviel in legal hitch

PARIS, April 22 (Reuters) - The prosecutor's office wants to reject an attempt by the immediate boss of Jerome Kerviel to take legal action against the trader blamed for record losses at French bank Societe Generale (SOGN.PA).

Eric Cordelle, Kerviel's superior, has been blamed by the bank for failing to spot the trader's unauthorised transactions that led to 4.9 billion euros ($7.8 billion) of losses.

Cordelle is being sacked by the bank and is seeking to take action against Kerviel for "damaging his image."

He had previously just been questioned as a witness.

However, the public prosecutor's office said on Tuesday Cordelle's move was groundless and it had asked the investigating magistrate to reject it.

On Jan 24, SocGen unveiled Kerviel's trading losses which forced the bank to do a rights issue to strengthen its balance sheet.

An internal report from the bank into the affair showed Kerviel's trades had triggered more than 70 alerts over the last year, some of which came to Cordelle's attention. However, the alerts were never fully followed up.

Kerviel was freed from prison in March after an appeal against his detention but he remains under formal investigation for breach of trust, computer abuse and falsification. (Reporting by Thierry Leveque; Writing by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by David Holmes)