French President Mr Jacques Chirac's center-right won a sweeping parliamentary majority in elections today, taking more than the 289 seats required for an absolute majority, Interior Ministry data showed.
The victory in the decisive second round of legislative elections gave Mr Chirac's supporters an absolute majority in parliament after five years of Socialist control.
Three leading polling institutes said the pro-Chirac Union for the Presidential Majority (UMP) won between 364 and 384 seats, while its junior partner, the Union for French Democracy (UDF), won between 21 and 26 seats.
With counting continuing in some of the 577 constituencies, results in those where it had ended gave Mr Chirac's Union for the Presidential Majority (UMP) 289 seats in the National Assembly, even without adding in numerous seats won by its allies.
Polling institutes using exit polls forecast a landslide victory for the UMP and its centre-right partners, with some 385 to 405 seats combined for all such parties.
The far-right National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen could take at best one seat, some institutes predicted, although forecasts released by TF1 television network said the party would not be represented in parliament.
There were 319 left-wing deputies and 258 right-wing deputies in the outgoing parliament elected in 1997.
The abstention rate for Sunday's vote, estimated between 37 and 39 per cent, would mark a record low for French elections, after a 35.6 abstention rate in last week's first round.
AFP