President Zapatero will attend a political rally in Toulouse this evening in support of French socialist presidential candidate, Segolène Royal, ahead of the first round of elections next Sunday.

Ms Royal, who was dubbed 'Zapatera' in the French press when she became France's first female regional president (of Poitou-Charentes) in 2004, confirmed Mr Zapatero's visit at a press conference at her party headquarters at the start of this month.

Ms Royal attended a political rally in Madrid last September during which she praised the Spanish government's social reform programme, and pledged to include "the Spanish model" in her own manifesto of proposed reforms.

Recent opinion polls predict only that 75% of voters are still undecided and that the conservative candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, will make it through to the second and definitive ballot on the 6th May.