I am no more racist than Blair - Le Pen

France’s extreme right-wing presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen today said he was ‘‘no more a racist’’ than Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The National Front leader said Mr Blair’s opposition to the Sangatte refugee camp proves there is no difference between their approaches to immigration.

The camp near the entrance to the Channel tunnel has become a magnet for refugees. Trains that runs through the tunnel are frequently interrupted by immigrants trying to enter Britain illegally.

‘‘I think we could make a special train to send them to Mr Blair,’’ Le Pen said.

He said France ‘‘was obligated to establish Sangatte because the ‘anti-racist’ British prime minister does not want to see them back there.’’

Earlier this week, Mr Blair called on Europeans to reject the policies espoused by Le Pen’s far-right party, saying there was no future in ‘‘narrow-minded racism and nationalism’’.

Speaking on French TV last night, Le Pen said ‘‘transit camps’’ should be set up where illegal aliens can be housed pending deportation.

He said illegal immigrants should be placed in ‘‘relatively comfortable transit camps’’ and then expelled.

‘‘What really worries me is that we are being progressively submerged by immense masses from the Third World, and this massive immigration is creating very desocialising conditions,’’ he told a radio interviewer.

He also said that France’s unemployment rate, at about 9% proves there are not enough jobs to justify allowing immigration.

‘‘We don’t have enough work for even our own citizens,’’ he said.

According to Labour Ministry statistics released in February, some 2.2 million French men and women were unemployed and unable to find work.

‘‘The constitution never said that foreigners should have the same rights as the French,’’ he said.

"Foreigners who don’t do well here have the right to leave.’’

Le Pen had toned down his rhetoric during this campaign, but his remarks yesterday appeared to signal a return to his more inflammatory language.

Former education minister Claude Allegre reacted angrily to Le Pen’s words on transit camps.

‘‘It is a horror what has been said,’’ Allegre said. ‘‘It is a programme that is not yet Nazi, but pre-Nazi.’’

Up to 350,000 students marched across France yesterday to condemn Le Pen - who in turn blamed rival President Jacques Chirac for encouraging the wave of popular protests against him.

The pair will meet in a presidential run-off on May 5.