Sarkozy takes poll lead

President Nicolas Sarkozy overtook Socialist challenger Francois Hollande for the first time Tuesday in an opinion poll on the first round of France's April-May election after attacking the European Union's trade and immigration policies.
The poll showed that Sarkozy would still lose to Hollande in a second-round runoff, however, albeit by a narrower margin of nine points, down from 13 points a fortnight ago.
Having trailed Hollande for months, the Ifop/Fiducial survey showed that Sarkozy had suddenly leapfrogged ahead of him. It put Sarkozy's first-round score at 28.5 percent, up from 27 percent at the end of February, and ahead of Hollande, who slipped to 27 percent from 28.5 percent.