Paris - Despite a bitter defeat in the vote to head the French Socialist Party, former presidential candidate Segolene Royal is apparently preparing to stand for the
2012 presidential election.

In a video available on Wednesday on the internet, Royal tells her supporters, "I need you, I need your ideas, because we are continuing - 2012 is soon, 2012 is tomorrow,
2012 is in three years."

On Tuesday, after four days of bitter infighting, the Socialist Party declared that Royal lost last Friday's party leadership election to Lille Mayor Martine Aubry by only 102 votes out of 135,000 cast.

The party leadership campaign split the Socialists along largely pro-Royal and anti-Royal lines, and the defeat was thought to make it very difficult for the 55-year-old Royal to make another presidential run. She was handily beaten by Sarkozy in the 2007 election.

However, in the video Royal appears to be saying that she intends to build up her own power base within the party, with her own team of advisors and her own political structure.

"I am continuing," she told her fans in the video. "I am continuing more than before."

According to a poll made public on Wednesday, despite the loss to Aubry, Royal remains the favourite among Socialist Party supporters to be the party's presidential candidate in the 2012 election.

The survey by the BVA institute found that 30 per cent of Socialist Party backers want Royal to be their candidate in 2012, compared to 27 per cent for International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn and only 20 per cent for Aubry. (dpa)