PARIS (Xinhua) -- Nicolas Sarkozy, candidate of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party, will win the second round of French presidential elections set for May 6, with 52 percent of all the valid votes cast, according to an opinion poll published on Monday.

According to the results of the poll which was conducted by LH2 for 20 minutes, RMC and BFM television stations, Segolene Royal, candidate of the Socialist Party will garner 48 percent of all the votes cast during this round.

The opinion poll was conducted on Friday and Saturday, just before and after the broadcasted debate between Royal and centrist candidate Francois Bayrou who obtained 18.8 percent of all the votes cast during the first round.

About 80 percent of the respondents said that they were sure of their final choice, 12 percent preferred one candidate but could change opinion, while eight percent were still hesitant.

On the night of the first round, LH2 conducted an opinion poll for 20 minutes, RMC and BFM television stations showing that 54 percent of the voters preferred Sarkozy against 46 percent for Royal.

Around 40 percent of Bayrou supporters are still not sure who to vote for during the second round of the elections. --------------- Sarkozy refutes personality attacks

Sarkozy went on the offensive Sunday, charging that he had been unjustly depicted as authoritarian as the battle for the Elysee entered its final week, AFP reported. Addressing tens of thousands of supporters at a Paris rally, the rightwinger also attacked his opponents on the left as hypocritical, saying they "adore the suburbs but would never live there." Sarkozy lamented that he had suffered "personal attacks" during the campaign that had targeted his "honor, sincerity, personality and character."

"They say that I pose a danger to liberties," Sarkozy told the crowd which responded with jeers.

"I am suspected of trying to create a police state ... I am accused of exerting pressure.

"Not a shred of proof has been produced to support such accusations which bring greater dishonor to those who make them than those they target," said the 52-year-old former interior minister. Bayrou last week blasted Sarkozy's "taste for intimidation and threat" that he warned would lead him to "concentrate powers as they have never been."

Criticism of Sarkozy's personality traits coupled with public opinion polls showing that he scares voters have proved to be the candidate's greatest hurdle in the campaign, even as he maintains a lead in polls. Sarkozy said those who were attacking him today were "the same who had held street protests against General Charles de Gaulle and chanted 'We will not allow Fascim!'" He also railed against "the left that has acquired a taste for power and privilege" and which he said had "condemned France to a status quo where workers, including the poorest and those who suffer would be the first victims."

The Paris sports stadium was packed with some 18,000 supporters for the last major rally in the capital by the rightwing candidate and two big screens were set up outside to allow 20,000 others to hear him speak.

Appealing to centrist voters who hold the key to the election, Sarkozy promised that their views would be fully represented in government.

He also reached out to supporters of far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who took the fourth place in round one, by promising to introduce some form of proportional representation in parliament.

Le Pen's National Front has demanded proportional representation to try to win seats in the National Assembly, from which it is currently absent.