Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande took the gloves off for the last major rallies of their ferocious battle for the French presidency.

The tone for the last days of campaigning was set by a fierce tele-vision debate on Wednesday, in which the right-wing incumbent Mr Sarkozy and Socialist challenger Mr Hollande traded insults without either landing a knock-out blow.

Mr Hollande remains the pollsters’ favourite to win tomorrow but Mr Sarkozy refused to cede any ground, appearing at a huge rally in the southern city of Toulon on Thursday to denounce his opponent as a threat to French values.

“When you want to give voting rights to immigrants without French citizenship, that’s not the republic,” he declared, referring to Mr Hollande’s pledge to allow French resid-ents from outside Europe to vote in municipal elections.

“When there are urban ghettos where the law is not respected, that’s not the republic.

“When you wipe out borders, when you don’t even dare speak of national identity, that’s not the republic.”

To loud applause he thundered: “The left is destroying the republic with its habit of regarding all things as having equal value. It’s time for a national burst of energy.”

Mr Hollande was just as determined, in front of a similar huge crowd in another southern city, Toulouse, where he denounced Mr Sarkozy’s record in office and predicted a Socialist victory, while cautioning against complacency.

“You will hunt for victory, you will conquer it, tear it from the hands of the right,” he declared, his voice hoarse after a long campaign and dozens of stump speeches and television appearances, including Wednesday’s debate.

Even as Mr Hollande was speaking, he received a boost from one of the defeated first-round candidates, centrist François Bayrou, who revealed he would vote for Mr Hollande despite concerns about his commitment to deficit reduction.

While Mr Bayrou said he would not instruct the nine per cent of the electorate who voted for him in the first round to vote one way or another, he said he had been offended by Mr Sarkozy’s lurch to the right since the first round.

“I, personally, will vote for François Hollande,” he said, expressing regret that the incumb-ent was pursuing the support of the 18 per cent of the electorate that had backed the far-right’s Marine Le Pen.

Mr Bayrou noted that he had been particularly shocked by a Sarkozy television spot, in which his presidential campaign juxtaposed his promise to cut immigration with images of crowds of migrants and a customs post sign with an Arabic inscription.

Mr Bayrou’s belated declaration was not expected to change the electoral map.

Polls have long forecast that Mr Hollande will win tomorrow’s run-off by around 54 per cent to 46, and they show no signs of shifting before polling day.

Following his second-place finish in the first round, Mr Sarkozy reached out to the 6.5 million voters who had backed Ms Le Pen’s far-right anti-immigrant ticket, toughening his rhetoric on national borders and social issues.

Most observers now expect a Hollande victory, after Wednesday’s debate proved indecisive despite fierce exchanges.

Mr Sarkozy had hoped to domin-ate, but instead Mr Hollande belied his image as a soft consensus-builder by repeatedly attacking the incumbent.

Mr Sarkozy has trailed in opinion polls for more than six months and during the debate the clearly frustrated President called Mr Hollande a “liar” and “arrogant” several times.

Mr Hollande’s response was sometimes mocking – accusing Mr Sarkozy of refusing to take responsibility for his record – and of self-satisfaction in a period of grim economic crisis for many voters.

“François Hollande’s only weakness compared to Nicolas Sarkozy, that he’s viewed as soft and blurry, was overcome last night,” said Gael Sliman of BVA opinion polls.

A total of 17.79 million people watched the almost three-hour duel, audience monitor Media-metrie said, which was fewer than the 20.4 million who had watched Socialist Segolene Royal take on Mr Sarkozy in 2007.

An LH2-Yahoo poll said 45 per cent of those who watched the debate had found Mr Hollande more convincing, while 41 preferred Mr Sarkozy.

The President, meanwhile, dismissed reports that Muammar Gaddafi’s regime had funded his 2007 election campaign.