Socialist Ségolène Royal is closing the gap on French presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy, according to the newest opinion poll today.
The TNS Sofres poll conducted Monday and Tuesday showed Ms Royal scoring 49% in the second round, compared to 48% a week ago.
Conservative Sarkozy polls at 51% versus 52% in the previous survey.
The TNS Sofres survey follows a CSA poll this week showing the two front-runners tied at 50%.
The first round of France's election takes place this weekend with the second round run-off due on 6 May.
Mr Sarkozy, a tough-talking former interior minister, has led Ms Royal in recent weeks and the CSA survey was the first to put the two on level terms since 21 March.
She and third-placed centrist candidate Francois Bayrou are concentrating on Mr Sarkozy's character, seeking to make the vote a referendum on his personality as much as his policies.
The left-wing daily Libération said his inability to visit France's multi-ethnic suburbs without the support of riot police means he is incapable of being the unifying force a president is supposed to be.
His portrayal as a dangerous right-winger who scares voters has forced him onto the defensive just days before first round polling.
'I'm attacked morning, noon and night and with such violence,' Mr Sarkozy told France Inter radio.
'I'm trying to tell the French people I will unite them, and to do that I have to love them, understand them, listen to them. That's what I'll do in the second round, if I make it.'
Ms Royal, seeking to become France's first woman president, has had trouble asserting her credibility during the campaign and pollsters had warned that many undecided voters might spurn her in favour of Mr Bayrou.
However, political analysts said these voters would swing behind her, despite persisting doubts over her high-spending manifesto proposals, if they thought she could beat Mr Sarkozy.
Paul Bacot, an analyst at the Sciences Po University in Lyon, said: 'If other surveys show she can beat him, Bayrou is dead. The left will totally vote for Royal.'
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