Aubry wins French Socialist vote by tiny majority

PARIS (Reuters) - Martine Aubry, the architect of France's 35-hour work week, has won the leadership battle for the French Socialist party by just 42 votes, the group said in a statement early on Saturday.

Supporters of her arch rival Segolene Royal immediately contested the result and demanded a re-run, raising the spectre of prolonged feuding and confusion within France's main opposition party.

The Socialists said Aubry won 50.04 percent of the vote among party members in Friday's ballot against 49.98 percent for Royal. Only 134,784 of the party's 233,000 members voted.

(Reporting by Laure Bretton; Writing by Crispian Balmer; editing by Andrew Dobbie)