Defeated Royal signals she will battle on

A combative Segolene Royal took the stage on Tuesday for the first time since her presidential poll defeat, promising to fight for a Socialist success in parliamentary elections but staying quiet about her own future.

France's Socialists have been deeply divided over the party's future direction, their leadership and the role of Royal since right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy defeated her in the presidential run-off on May 6.

In an unusual display of unity, heavyweights from the party's far-left, centrist and social-democratic factions all took the stage together at a Paris rally and waved at thousands of cheering supporters.

"We will construct the new opposition that France needs," Ms Royal said, as supporters shouted: "Thank you, Segolene!"

Ms Royal called on voters to turn out massively at the ballot box. But surveys show Mr Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement party comfortably winning the polls on June 10 and 17.

Ms Royal has signalled she wants to continue to play a key role in the leftist party, and commentators say she is already eyeing the next presidential election in 2012. Party leader Francois Hollande, who also is Ms Royal's partner in private life, said last week he would not seek a new mandate, fanning the debate about his succession.

"It's not a subject for today," Ms Royal told reporters, when asked whether she intended to become the new party leader. "When the time has come, I will talk about this," she said ahead of her speech in a concert hall in northern Paris.

Ms Royal is controversial within her party. She sparked much criticism on the left for an unusual presidential election campaign, in which she frequently distanced herself from her party with tough law-and-order proposals and patriotic comments.

Unsurprisingly, knives came out straight after her defeat.

Former finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn has said the party should reinvent itself as a social-democratic force, while another stalwart, former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, says the party should look left and stay true to its roots. Ms Royal has called on the party to pursue her courtship of centrist voters.