Sarkozy takes campaign to Royal bastion

DIJON, France (Reuters) - Rightwing presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy took his election campaign to a leftwing bastion on Monday and warned his Socialist rival Segolene Royal against attempts to demonize him.

A relaxed, confident Sarkozy, who topped Sunday's first round ballot, urged voters to rally to his "new French dream" of a fairer, more dynamic country that would, he said, make the national motto of fraternity a reality.

His speech formed part of his strategy of generating a consensus around key values like work, authority, merit and the theme of national identity that could attract moderate voters otherwise put off by his hardline law-and-order image.

At a rally in Dijon, a city 310 km (190 miles) southeast of Paris run by Royal's co-campaign manager, Sarkozy also rejected any electoral horse-trading with candidates eliminated on Sunday, but said his inclusive vision of France was open to all.

"During this second round campaign I will engage in no petty politicking that would seek to rally people by luring them away or cutting deals," Sarkozy said. But he was ready to work with anyone with an open mind.

Royal on Monday offered to meet centrist Francois Bayrou, who came third with around 7 million votes, ahead of a May 6 run-off against Sarkozy for talks on common ground.

Sarkozy was preceded on stage by Eric Besson, a former senior Socialist official who quit in a blazing row over the cost of Royal's election promises and wrote a best-selling memoir in which he branded her as incompetent and dangerous.

Sarkozy hailed the presence of Besson and Education Minister Gilles de Robien, a member of Bayrou's centrist UDF party, as proof he was ready to include people of good will in his team.

"There is no need to agree on everything in order for everyone to be able to work with others for the common good and the same ideal," Sarkozy said.

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The choice of venue and guest list was part of the former interior minister's campaign to confound his strident, divisive image and convince Bayrou's voters that he is not sectarian.

In his speech, Sarkozy ran through his campaign themes of the value of work, merit, authority, national identity and economic renewal like a "greatest hits" rendition of his campaign speeches over the past six months.

Mixing self-deprecating humor with rapier attacks on his opponent's policies, Sarkozy warned the Royal camp to campaign on issues rather than attack his character.

Royal sought in the closing weeks of the first round to turn the election into a referendum on Sarkozy's personality. He is seen by many centrists and leftwings as a hardliner whose economic reforms will be as harsh as his law-and-order stance.

Besson apologized for his role in the mud-slinging -- he authored an anti-Sarkozy tract before he quit the Royal camp -- saying senior Socialists realized last autumn Royal could not beat Sarkozy in a straight fight on policies and credibility.

"We had to demonize him in order to be able to hope to win, to caricature in the hope of succeeding in making people afraid of him," said a slightly embarrassed Besson, who was applauded by the crowd of around 10,000 people.

"Roughly the message was -- Vote for Royal, even if you have doubts, to defeat the threat posed by Sarkozy," he said, adding the Socialists would use the same tactic ahead of the run-off ballot on May 6.