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Sarkozy, the tough-talking former interior minister, won a commanding lead of 31.11 percent of the vote while Royal garnered 25.84 percent in the first round of voting on Sunday.

Royal's result was a huge relief for the opposition Socialist Party which had feared a repeat of the 2002 shock when then Prime Minister Lionel Jospin was humiliatingly knocked out of the race in the first round by far-right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.

This time Le Pen was in shock after he came in fourth, with 10.51 percent.

Democratic Awakening

Jean-Marie Colombani, editor-in-chief of Le Monde newspaper, said the highest turnout for more than 40 years -- 84.6 percent -- showed that the French had undergone a "democratic awakening" and that "people wanted to wipe out the memory" of Le Pen's success in 2002.

None of the other eight candidates gained more than five percent, according to final figures from the interior ministry.

Sarkozy and Royal will now square off in the second round on May 6, and will put their starkly different visions to a public test in a face-to-face televised debate on May 2.

A clear choice?

"I want only one thing: to rally the French people around a new French dream," Sarkozy, 52, the governing party's candidate, told cheering supporters.

Royal, 53 and aiming to become France's first woman president, pledged to be the champion of those who want to change France "without brutalizing it.

"We have a clear choice between two, very different projects for society," she told a post-election rally.

An opinion poll by IPSOS after the first round predicted Sarkozy would beat Royal by 54 percent to 46 in the run-off.

Back to campaigning

Both candidates went straight back onto the campaign trail Monday, looking to woo the all important electorate of centrist Francois Bayrou, who came in third with 18.55 percent.

Sarkozy's lieutenant Brice Hortefeux said the frontrunner would not entertain "backroom deals" with Bayrou, but said "the door is not closed" to negotiations.

Bayrou's small Union for a French Democracy (UDF) party has in the past aligned itself with Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) in parliament but the candidate has veered to the left during the campaign.

"We will not start negotiating in the wings as some usually do," said Jean-Christophe Lagarde, a deputy from Bayrou's UDF party. "We will think about the best way to ensure that the views of
the people who said 'we want to change politics in this country' are respected."

Bayrou, a 55-year-old former education minister, had campaigned on a platform that rejected the traditional left and right divide and called for a unity government made up of moderates from both camps.