Paris  - A French Socialist Party commission charged with investigating claims of election irregularities has determined that former presidential candidate Segolene Royal has lost the race to become party leader.

The official recount established that Lille Mayor Martine Aubry beat Royal by 102 votes out of nearly 135,000 cast.

Paris - Representatives of former French presidential candidate Segolene Royal have formally asked the Socialist Party to annul last Friday's vote for party leader, the online edition of the daily Le Monde reported on Tuesday.

According to the still-official vote count, Royal lost the election to Lille Mayor Martine Aubry by 42 votes, out of nearly 135,000 cast, a margin of just 0.04 per cent.

Paris - The United States and the nations of the eurozone have entered an economic recession that will last at least until the third quarter of next year, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in its semi-annual Economic Outlook, released Tuesday in Paris.

"Twenty-one of 30 OECD member countries will go through a protracted recession, of a magnitude not seen since the early 1980s," OECD chief economist Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel told journalists during the launch of the report.

Paris  - France and Germany agree that lowering the Value Added Tax (VAT) is not an effective response to the economic crisis, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday.

Despite signs that a sharp economic contraction was taking hold, the two leaders also reaffirmed that they expected the European Union to hammer out an agreement this month on climate change.

"When we lower the VAT, what does that bring? Only lower prices. We think other measures, such as emphasizing innovation and research, would be more effective for our economies," Sarkozy told journalists after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Paris - France and Germany agree that lowering the Value Added Tax (VAT) is not an effective response to the economic crisis, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday in Paris.

"When we lower the VAT, what does that bring? Only lower prices. We think other measures, such as emphasizing innovation and research, would be more effective for our economies," Sarkozy told journalists after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Paris - The French Socialist Party on Monday began trying to resolve an ugly factional row that grew out of a disputed election for a new party leader.

A special party committee began examining complaints about the vote count that resulted in a victory of 42 votes out of 137,000 cast, or a margin of 0.04 per cent, for Lille Mayor Martine Aubry over former presidential candidate Segolene Royal in Friday's election.