Former French leader Nicolas Sarkozy has announced that he will seek his party's nomination to stand in next year's presidential election.
Mr Sarkozy, 61, was unseated from the Elysee Palace at the last election in 2012 by Francois Hollande.
"I have decided to be a candidate for the 2017 presidential election. I felt I had the strength to lead this battle at a troubled time in our history," Mr Sarkozy wrote on his social media pages ahead of the publication of a book called 'Everything for France'.
Mr Sarkozy said in the book's extracts that he would join the conservative Les Republicains party primaries scheduled for November.
More than a dozen contenders are vying for the party ticket as candidate, including main rival Alain Juppe.
Mr Sarkozy had done little to conceal his desire to return to power since taking the helm of France's main right-wing party in late 2014, but two months ago trailed Mr Juppe in opinion polls.
In July, before Islamist militants struck France twice in two weeks, he overtook Mr Juppe among core Les Republicains supporters, though he was still less popular than Mr Juppe among all centre-right voters.
"The five years that come will be full of danger, but also of hope," Mr Sarkozy wrote.
The two-time former interior minister has been scathing of Mr Hollande's security record, urging France to get tough on immigration, crack down on suspected Islamists and halt the erosion of France's secular identity.
Courting voters tempted towards France's strengthening far-right National Front party, Mr Sarkozy has laced recent speeches with references to national identity and blames "cowardly leaders" for a loss of French culture.
