French right-wing presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy stepped down as interior minister yesterday, as expected, to focus on the election less than a month before voters go to the polls.

For months Mr Sarkozy, 52, resisted pressure to step down from the job in which he made his name as a law and order hardliner, saying there was no reason for him to quit despite criticism he was using the post as an electoral platform.

French President Jacques Chirac announced last week that Mr Sarkozy would leave the government yesterday. Mr Chirac's office said in a statement that Mr Sarkozy had handed over his post to Francois Baroin, minister for France's overseas territories.

Mr Chirac has given Mr Sarkozy his backing as he is their party's candidate, but the two have been bitter rivals since Mr Sarkozy backed a former Mr Chirac ally for president in 1995.

Mr Baroin, 41, nicknamed "Harry Potter" because of his bespectacled, boyish looks, is seen as a compromise candidate between the Mr Chirac and Mr Sarkozy camps.

He was taken under Mr Chirac's wing after his father, head of France's main freemasons' organisation and a close Mr Chirac friend, died in a 1987 plane crash.

He is also regarded as "Sarko-compatible" because he has stayed out of the sniping between Mr Chirac and Mr Sarkozy allies.

Polls show Mr Sarkozy leads his Socialist rival Segolene Royal and suggest he would win if they faced each other in the second round on May 6. Polls published last week, however, showed his lead over Ms Royal was slipping.

Surveys have also shown that if third-placed centrist Francois Bayrou could make it to the second round, he would win the presidency.

That remains a distant prospect, however, as only the two candidates with the most votes on April 22 go through and polls show he is well behind Ms Royal.

Health Minister Xavier Bertrand, Mr Sarkozy's main campaign spokesman, also stepped down yesterday to focus on the campaign.