France politics: UMP party splits in parliament

The ex-prime minister said the faction, Rally for the UMP (R-UMP), would be dissolved if a new vote was announced.

He disputes the victory of Jean-Francois Cope, whose narrow win has been reconfirmed by party officials.

A compromise may be emerging under which the party would hold a referendum on the need for a new ballot.

Fillon said he favoured the idea, floated by Cope, of a party referendum in January, but stressed it must be held "in conditions of objectivity".

Of the 183 UMP deputies in the National Assembly, it is believed at least 60 will join Fillon's faction.

The split was forced by a parliamentary deadline for all MPs to declare their party affiliation for next year's funds.

The ruling Socialist Party had refused to move the Friday deadline.

In practical terms, this means Cope's supporters will lose crucial public funding at a time when the UMP is beset by debt, because the breakaway group will take some of the funding with them.

Parties receive an annual sum of €42,000 per deputy.

The original ballot was held by the party on 18 November for its 300,000 or so members, and Cope was announced the winner by just 98 votes.

A recount was ordered after Fillon's supporters found returns for three overseas territories had been overlooked but on Monday Cope's election was reconfirmed with an increased majority - nearly 1,000 votes.

"The time is not right in the heat of the moment, in the bitterness... to say we must vote again right away," Cope said on France Info radio on Tuesday.

Francois Fillon is also pursuing the so-called "nuclear option" with a legal challenge to the vote.

Bailiffs went twice to the offices of the UMP on Monday to secure the voting record.

Amid all the bitterness, it was always unlikely that the two camps would find a mutually acceptable agreement.