France's far-right on course to grab three regions

The far-right National Front (FN) could take power in three of France's regions, polls said Friday, two days before the first round of elections which threaten to dramatically alter the country's political landscape.

Marine Le Pen, the party's leader, is on course to top the poll in the northern Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie region -- once a bastion of the left.

Her 25-year-old niece Marion Marechal-Le Pen seems to be heading for an almost identically impressive score in the vast southeastern region that includes the French Riviera.

The anti-immigrant, anti-European party is also well ahead in the eastern Alsace-Champagne-Ardennes-Lorraine region that borders Belgium and Germany, according to polls by Ipsos and Odoxa.

Analysts predicted that the FN could take all three regions in the second round on December 13 if the traditional parties refuse to join forces against them.

Victory would not only put the party at the head of a regional government for the first time, but would also give Marine Le Pen a springboard for her presidential campaign in 2017.

Polls already show her the winner of the first round of that contest.

With the FN also in a close race for Burgundy and Franche-Comte in the east, leading left- and right-wing politicians appealed to their supporters to go out and vote on Sunday to head off an historic FN win.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls urged activists at his only election rally on Thursday to "appeal to patriotism" to ensure a massive turnout, with Marine Le Pen accusing him of waging "total war" against her.

Nationally her party was only one point ahead of the right-wing Republicans, led by former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who were on 29 percent.

The ruling Socialists lagged eight points behind on 22 percent.

But the Republicans' deputy leader Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet warned against defeatism, claiming the election battle was far from over.

"Our duty is not to be paralysed by the polls and wait for the inevitable to happen, but to fight and fight till Sunday and prove the polls wrong," she said.

The FN -- whose leaders have repeatedly linked terrorism with immigration -- has been climbing in the polls since 130 people were killed in jihadist attacks on Paris on November 13, hammering home its message of "we told you so."

But any election triumph will depend on whether the other parties are able to forge alliances against it.

Socialist leaders will begin talks after the first results come in on Sunday to decide if they will pull out of some second-round battles, with the Republicans meeting the follow day to agree their strategy.