French teachers, core leftwing voters, jeered leading Socialist presidential contender Segolene Royal yesterday after she suggested they spend more time in schools and less time giving private lessons.

Video footage, apparently shot during a January meeting in the western town of Angers, has put Royal on the defensive a week before Thursday's internal party ballot to pick the Socialist candidate for the 2007 presidential election.

A number of Websites have carried the video footage of Royal explaining her "revolutionary" view that teachers should spend 35 hours in schools, even if they are not teaching.

"I'm not going to shout it from the rooftops yet because I don't want the teaching unions to attack me," Royal said in the video, adding teachers should give free after-school classes to help weaker students rather than earn cash from private tuition.

Royal struggled to put the controversy behind her yesterday, the day after she branded the video a "quite reprehensible" tactic that had selectively quoted her.

"Sego=Sarko=Thatcher," read one placard, referring to conservative presidential frontrunner Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain's former conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Party leader François Hollande, already accused of favouring Royal, his partner, throughout the campaign, said Royal had raised a legitimate issue but condemned the video's release.

The video is doubly embarrassing for Royal who has pioneered "participatory democracy" and the Internet to portray herself as a modern but down-to-earth leader in touch with people's views.