French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen says she is temporarily stepping down as head of her far-right National Front party.

The move appears to be a way for Ms Le Pen to embrace a wider range of potential voters ahead of her May 7 runoff election against centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron, who came in first in Sunday’s first round poll.

“Tonight, I am no longer the president of the National Front. I am the presidential candidate,” she said on French public television news Monday local time.

Ms Le Pen has said in the past that she is not a candidate of her party, and made that point when she rolled out her platform in February, saying the measures she was espousing were not her party’s, but her own.

She has worked to bring in voters from the left and right for several years, cleaning up her party’s racist, anti-Semitic image to do so.

Most of Ms Le Pen’s rivals have joined forces to end her presidential aspirations, with just one major candidate resisting calls to unite against her.

Defeated hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon has pointedly refused to support Mr Macron, saying he will instead seek the opinion of his supporters through via website.

Some of Ms Le Pen’s advisers told French media on Monday that they were hoping to lure some of Mr Melenchon’s supporters for the runoff election.

Mr Melenchon and Ms Le Pen share many political policies, including a hostility to the European Union and globalisation, a tough stance on immigration and a friendly attitude toward Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

Few analysts expect Ms Le Pen to win in the runoff, with polls released on Monday indicating around 60 per cent of voters supported Mr Macron and less than 40 per cent for Ms Le Pen.

A live televised debate between Le Pen and Macron is set for May 3.