Sarkozy's party fails to elect leader

An electoral commission of the Union for a Popular Movement party was sifting through the votes after allies of both candidates - former prime minister Francois Fillon and former budget minister Jean-Francois Cope - both claimed pockets of vote-rigging in Sunday's balloting.

The winner will lead opposition to President Francois Hollande's Socialists, who dominate both houses of parliament and nearly all of France's regions.

In the spring, after a decade in power, Mr Sarkozy's conservative UMP party lost both the presidency and control of the National Assembly to the Socialists.

Laurent Wauquiez, a former European affairs minister, said the dispute gave the party a "very bad image" and former agriculture minister Bruno Le Maire called the situation "surreal."

In a blog entry entitled "Stop" former prime minister Alain Juppe wrote: "We have to get out of this lamentable situation to avoid the explosion of our party."

Mr Fillon projects himself as an even-tempered moderate, while UMP secretary-general Cope has reached out to the far right for support.

He led the legislative effort that banned Muslim veils in France.

France doesn't have any elections again until 2014 - when voters will elect mayors, regional officials and European Parliament MEPs, but party leadership is seen as a possible springboard to the presidency.