France's Le Pen 'to run' in poll

[Nicholas]

France's far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen has collected the 500 sponsor signatures he needs to run in April's presidential election, his party says.
The leader of the National Front will submit the 500 signatures to the Constitutional Council himself later on Wednesday, the AFP news agency reports.

Every candidate must be endorsed by at least 500 elected officials to stand, and has until Friday to do so.

Most of the 42,000 elected officials entitled to sign are mayors.

Last week, the front-runner for next month's presidential election, centre-right candidate and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, appealed to uncommitted mayors to sign for presidential hopefuls who were struggling to get the 500 endorsements needed.

Recent polls show Mr Sarkozy has a narrow lead over his Socialist rival, Segolene Royal, ahead of the 22 April poll.

Mr Le Pen currently has 13% of the first-round vote, according to the latest poll published on Wednesday.................

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6449711.stm