France's Sarkozy slams Royal over "riot" warning

PARIS, May 5 (Reuters) Voting began overseas in French presidential elections today and front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy condemned ''warlike'' remarks by his rival Segolene Royal, who said his election on Sunday could trigger riots.

Polling stations opened in French Guiana, the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe and the tiny overseas territory of St Pierre and Miquelon off Canada's east coast, as voting got under way a day before polls open in mainland France.

About 1 million French nationals outside France can cast their ballot a day early, a move intended to boost turnout. The rest of France's 44.5 million electors vote on Sunday.

In an interview released by the French daily Le Parisien on its Web site late yesterday, right-winger Sarkozy said his Socialist rival's warning there might be violence if she lost the election was a sign of desperation.

''This warlike language is the negation of basic democratic rules,'' said Sarkozy, adding it was an unprecedented attack.

''No doubt it's because she's demoralised,'' he added. Royal trailed by 10 points in the last polls published yesterday ahead of a pre-vote embargo.

The full interview could not be published in Saturday's print edition of Le Parisien because of an election ban on opinion surveys and campaigning on the eve of polling, to ensure voters a ''day of reflection'' before the ballot.

Royal yesterday told RTL radio Sarkozy ''would be a dangerous choice'', acknowledging that she was breaking a taboo by raising the prospect of violence.

''SCUM'' JIBE Pressed as to whether there would actually be unrest if Sarkozy won, Royal said: ''I think so, I think so,'' referring to suburbs hit by rioting in 2005.

Critics of Sarkozy accuse him of heavy-handed policing as interior minister and say his ''scum'' jibe, directed at young thugs he said were ruining life in one multi-ethnic suburb, fuelled the worst riots in mainland France in 40 years.

Son of a Hungarian immigrant, Sarkozy has been portrayed during an increasingly fierce campaign as a hardliner whose ambition was a danger to democracy. Royal has been labelled a gaffe-prone lightweight lacking presidential gravitas.

Sarkozy campaigned for the ''silent majority'' of hard-working French people, vowing real change with reforms that would shake up the strict labour code, restore full employment, offer higher growth and more spending power.

Royal said electing a woman would herald radical change for France, her left-wing economic policies and consensual approach to social affairs offering ''change without brutality''. But proposals such as sending young offenders to boot camps rankled with some Socialists as too authoritarian.

Having lacked bite early in the campaign, Royal went on the offensive after the April 22 first round, attacking Sarkozy in a mid-week TV debate in a bid to win over centrist voters who analysts say hold the key to Sunday's ballot.

But Sarkozy has since extended his lead, two polls yesterday giving him 55 percent to 45 percent for Royal, suggesting the Socialist will need a political tsunami to sweep away her rival if she is to become the first woman president of France.

With Sarkozy's camp already planning celebrations on Place de la Concorde in central Paris, the candidate told Le Parisien he would take a short break if he won before leading the fight for June parliamentary polls.

Whoever wins, the next French leader faces a foreign policy headache after Afghanistan's Taliban delayed until after the vote a deadline for the release of a French hostage.

It wants French troops to quit Afghanistan and jailed Taliban freed by the Afghan authorities. Sarkozy said in April he saw no long-term role for France in Afghanistan but did not link his comments to the hostage crisis.

REUTERS SM RAI2359