French vote shaping up as two-horse race

By Crispian Balmer

PARIS (Reuters) - France's presidential election looked increasingly like a two-horse race on Tuesday, with frontrunners rightist Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal battling for supremacy while other candidates lost ground.

An opinion poll published in le Parisien daily suggested Sarkozy and Royal would cruise past their rivals in the April 22 first round vote and then tie in a run-off ballot on May 6.

Sarkozy, a tough-talking former interior minister, has led Royal in recent weeks and the CSA poll was the first to put the two on level terms since March 21.

However, other polls over the past four days have suggested that between 30 and 40 percent of voters were still not fully decided, meaning an upset could still jolt French politics.

Looking to seize the initiative, Royal promised on Tuesday to be a frugal president if elected and sweep away some of the regal excesses that have helped distance French leaders from their increasingly disgruntled voters in recent years.

"We must end this monarchic drift which consists in believing that a head of state can spend public money without control or limit," Royal said, adding the president's budget had risen by almost 800 percent between 1995 and 2006.

Royal, who wants to become France's first woman president, has had trouble asserting her credibility during the campaign and pollsters have warned that many undecided voters might spurn her in favour of the centrist candidate Francois Bayrou.

However, political analysts said these voters would swing behind Royal, despite persisting doubts over her high-spending manifesto proposals, if they thought she could beat Sarkozy.