French presidential candidates Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal went back to the campaign trail yesterday as they battled for votes from the undecided center ground that will be key to their May 6 run-off.

Sunday's first round ballot set up a classic race between left and right in France after Sarkozy, the conservative former interior minister, scored a resounding win with 31.2 percent against 25.9 percent for the Socialist candidate Royal.

Opinion polls give Sarkozy a firm edge heading into the decisive second round, with between 52-54 percent support against 46-48 percent for Royal.

But the result had both candidates eyeing supporters of centrist Francois Bayrou, who captured 18.6 percent of the vote after a dynamic campaign based on a pledge to sweep aside the ruling elite and overcome traditional political divides.

"Essentially the results will be dictated by the behavior of his voters. They are the ones who will make a difference," Roland Cayrol, head of pollsters CSA told Le Parisien newspaper.

Bayrou has not given any endorsement and with polls suggesting centrist support could go either way, spokesmen for the two leading camps immediately reached out to his voter base.

"The door is never closed," Brice Hortefeux, one of Sarkozy's closest campaign aides told France Inter radio. "We appeal to the people who voted for Francois Bayrou rather than to the candidate himself," he said.

A televised debate between Sarkozy and Royal on May 2 is likely to be key to the rest of a campaign that has been fought to a large extent over the personalities of the two candidates.

Both resumed campaigning yesterday, with Sarkozy meeting a woman's association in Paris before traveling to the eastern city of Dijon for an early evening rally, while Royal goes to Valence in southern France for an open air meeting.

Whoever wins will have to address the deep discontent of a country suffering from one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe and with memories of riots in its deprived multi-ethnic suburbs less than two years ago still raw.

Sarkozy's success on Sunday owed much to his success in siphoning off support from far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen with a campaign based on fighting crime and illegal immigration.

Source: China Daily/agencies