Former president Nicolas Sarkozy"s conservative UMP party and their allies lead in the first round of French local elections, according to a TV exit poll, denying Marine Le Pen"s far-right National Front (FN) first place.

If confirmed the result would be a setback for Ms Le Pen, who had hoped her anti-immigrant, anti-euro party would emerge top in the first round, boosting her ambitions to win presidential elections set for 2017.

The UMP and its partners together secured 29.2% of the vote nationally, ahead of the anti-immigrant, anti-euro FN on 26.3%.