French far-right leader Marine Le Pen says she has obtained the backing of 500 elected officials required to be a candidate in the April-May presidential election, clearing a hurdle days before Friday's filing deadline.
A failure by Ms Le Pen to gather the requisite support by 16 March could have rocked the election race with far-right voters likely to have switched support to conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is behind Socialist Francois Hollande in most opinion polls.
Ms Le Pen is running third in polls and has won a strong following since she took over the National Front leadership from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen last year.
However, her score is too low to seriously threaten Mr Hollande or Mr Sarkozy's chances of facing each other in a 6 May runoff.
The former lawyer has shifted from her party's traditional anti-immigration focus and is campaigning for France to exit the euro and erect protectionist barriers.
Mr Sarkozy leads Mr Hollande for the first time in an opinion poll for round one of the election, but is still shown losing in the second round.
The Ifop/Fiducial poll put support for Mr Sarkozy at 28.5% in the first round on 22 April, up from 27% at the end of February. Support for Mr Hollande slipped to 27%, from 28.5%, the poll showed.
Other recent polls put Mr Hollande's support at 28-29% and Mr Sarkozy at 27-28% for the first round, with Ms Le Pen at around 16%, having lost several points in recent weeks. Centrist Francois Bayrou ranks fourth with 12%.
In January, Ms Le Pen was just a couple of percentage points behind Mr Sarkozy in polls, reviving memories of the 2002 election when her father made it into a second-round presidential vote against Jacques Chirac.
That year, Jean-Marie Le Pen also obtained his 500th signature just before the deadline.
