Twelve candidates including the far-right firebrand Jean-Marie Le Pen are to run in next month's French presidential election after gathering the 500 endorsements needed to qualify, the council said Monday.

The 12 include right-wing favorite Nicolas Sarkozy, Socialist Segolene Royal and centrist Francois Bayrou, as well as anti-globalization crusader Jose Bove.

On the left, the other candidates are postman Olivier Besancenot of the Revolutionary Communist League, Workers' Struggle candidate Arlette Laguiller, Communist Party Marie-George Buffet, small-town mayor Gerard Schivardi and the Green Party candidate Dominique Voynet.

On the right, the fourth challenger is the nationalist Philippe de Villiers of the Movement for France, while Frederic Nihous of the Hunting, Fishing, Nature and Traditions party is standing on a single-issue ticket.

Candidate numbers down

The overall number is lower than in 2002, when 16 candidates contested the first round, seen as one of the reasons for Le Pen's shock presence in the second round run-off. The line-up also includes four women, the highest share in any French presidential election.

Under rules designed to weed out frivolous candidacies, would-be contenders had until Friday to submit 500 endorsements from France's mayors and other elected officials to the Constitutional Council, the body that supervises the election.

More than 40 contenders -- many of them single-issue campaigners with no political support base -- had initially thrown their hat in the ring. The council worked through the weekend to establish the validity of the bids. The first-round vote is scheduled for April 22 and the top two will likely go through to a second-round run-off on May 6.

Psychological change

Bove, 53, who became a household name after he attacked a McDonald's outlet in southern France in 1999 to protest la malbouffe or bad food, scraped in with 504 sponsorship forms -- but was unsure whether all would be considered valid. The sheep farmer's planned policies include banning companies that make a profit from sacking staff.

Royal said the announcement from the country's constitutional court marked a crucial new phase in the election campaign.

"As of the moment when the list of candidates is published there will be a psychological change among voters who will now listen even more closely," she said.

Sarkozy in the lead

Sarkozy currently leads the election race, with 31 percent of first round votes, ahead of Royal on 26 percent and Bayrou on 22 percent, according to a poll published on Monday.

No other candidate musters more than 2.5 percent, but the French media now have to follow strict rules dividing air-time equally between all candidates: a potential boost to smaller candidates.