Paris - Former French presidential candidate Segolene Royal said US president-elect Barack Obama was inspired by her campaign and copied it, the online edition of the daily Le Monde reported on Tuesday.

"Yes, I inspired Obama and his teams copied us," Royal said in Washington, where she was to be the only French politician of note to take part in Obama's inauguration later on Tuesday.

Royal said Obama's campaign aides took away several of her ideas, such as her "win-win" slogan or the idea of the "citizen expert."

In addition, she said that Obama "adapted" her tactic of participative democracy to the American political landscape, "which is very different from the European."

Royal said she came to Washington because she has "a sense of history," and especially because "I wanted to experience it differently than in front to the television screen." (dpa)