France's Royal in Bayrou debate

Mr Bayrou refused to endorse Ms Royal in the debate

French presidential hopeful Segolene Royal and defeated candidate Francois Bayrou have held a televised debate in which they vowed to seek common ground.

But both ruled out working more closely together before the final vote next month, stressing their differences.

The debate, on a cable TV channel, has dominated recent political campaigning.

Another cable channel pulled out of broadcasting it out of fear it would not be allocating airtime fairly to the other contender, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr Sarkozy, who takes on Ms Royal in a 6 May run-off, had refused to take part in the three-way debate, prompting Mr Bayrou to accuse him of stifling free speech.

'Slanderous insinuation'

The BBC's Alasdair Sandford in Paris said the debate, which took place in front of hundreds of journalists in a Paris hotel, had dominated political debate in recent days.

Royal's seal of approval

Mr Bayrou repeated his stance that he was not going to back either of the candidates.

But there was consensus on some of the issues between the pair.

On institutional and parliamentary reform they agreed power needed to be spread more evenly; on Europe, both said a new treaty should be put to a referendum, our correspondent says.

But Mr Bayrou did not agree with the Socialist candidate's spending plans outlined in her presidential manifesto.

Mr Sarkozy derided the debate, calling it part of Ms Royal's "little games".

Ms Royal and Mr Bayrou had agreed to hold the debate following her call for talks about a possible centre-left alliance.

Who takes Mr Bayrou's 6.8m votes from the first round may well decide who wins the run-off.

When Mr Sarkozy declined to take part, both Ms Royal's Socialists and Mr Bayrou accused him and his supporters of intimidating broadcasters and the industry watchdog to try to stop the debate.

Mr Sarkozy's team strongly denied the allegations, saying they were a "slanderous insinuation".

Mr Sarkozy, who won 31% of the first-round vote, and Ms Royal, who took nearly 26%, will hold their own TV debate on 2 May.

Opinion polls show her closing the gap but still trailing Mr Sarkozy.