Sarkozy's lead narrows

Paris - A new poll released on Tuesday showed Nicolas Sarkozy's lead over Segolene Royal narrowing as the rivals for the French presidency lobbied hard to win over middle-ground voters seen as key to victory.

Rightwinger Sarkozy would win 51 percent of the vote in the May 6 election against 49 percent for Royal, according to the Sofres poll, the first this week to show such a slender gap.

Sarkozy and Royal stepped up overtures to centrist candidate Francois Bayrou, who came third in the first round of voting on Sunday with about 6.8 million votes.

Royal, who wants to become France's first woman president, offered Bayrou "an open debate" to try to agree on common policies and draw his electorate to her.

Sarkozy, the former interior minister, has called on centrist voters to rally behind him while his Union for a Popular Movement Party (UMP) party threatened to scrap electoral deals that had allowed members of Bayrou's party to win seats in parliament.

The Sofres poll suggested that Royal would get the lion's share of votes - 46 percent - from Bayrou's supporters while 25 percent would back Sarkozy. The remaining 29 percent would abstain.

Six other surveys carried out after the multi-candidate first round of voting on Sunday put Sarkozy in the lead with 52 to 54 percent of votes.

At an election rally in the southern city of Montpellier, Royal thanked defeated candidates from the left who had thrown their weight behind her. And she told supporters: "You, the citizens of France, will decide this presidential election. Not some mathematical addition."

Sarkozy held out a hand to members of Bayrou's small Union for a French Democracy (UDF) party, telling supporters near the northwestern city of Rouen that "my friends from the UDF are welcome. We need a great rallying".

Bayrou, the 55-year-old former education minister, met with members of his UDF party as he prepared to reveal his next move at a much-awaited news conference on Wednesday.

The defeated candidate however was not expected to endorse Royal or Sarkozy, having fought his campaign on the central theme of rejecting the left-right political divide.

There was instead talk of creating a new political party to build on Bayrou's strong showing in the presidential race and present candidates in the legislative elections in June.

UDF party leader for Paris, Didier Bariani, said he "did not see why a political movement that has fought to exist will exterminate itself by taking sides for one or the other candidate".

Sarkozy advisor Francois Fillon told Le Figaro newspaper that if Bayrou backed Sarkozy, the governing party would abide by electoral deals that have allowed his UDF candidates to stand unopposed in some districts and win parliamentary seats.

But he added: "If not, the UMP will present candidates in all the electoral districts."

France is voting for a successor to Jacques Chirac, who has been president since 1995, in an election that will usher in a younger generation of leaders amid much agonising over how to adapt to globalisation and attack high unemployment.

Pledging a "clean break" from the politics of the past, Sarkozy, 52, has centred his campaign around right-wing themes such as the work ethic, national identity, immigration and economic liberalisation.

Royal, 53, promises to protect the country's generous "social model" and her 100-point "presidential pact" contains many new welfare projects to fight poverty and joblessness.

The two candidates are to hold a television debate on May 2, which should be the high point of the second-round campaign.