PARIS: Although neither presidential candidate - incumbent Gaullist Head of State Jacques Chirac and current Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin - has yet officially announced his candidacy, spokesmen for France’s two leading political parties have lost no time in slinging mud at each other.

For the moment, though, the campaign has only two serious candidates, with a poll published in Sunday’s “Journal du Dimanche” indicating that if the election were held today, Messrs Chirac and Jospin would each win 50 per cent of the vote.

Indeed, the voters in another poll, published last week, let it be known they were disappointed that neither man had yet officially declared his candidacy.

Campaign headquarters have already opened, with the two leading candidates having their offices on the very same street, Jospin on the portion of the Rue Saint-Martin located in the trendy central Paris Marais district.

Chirac, for his part, has elected office further north on the part of the street called the Faubourg Saint-Martin, which is located in the poorer more popular northern parts of Paris.

Jospin’s headquarters usually house the offices of couturier Jean-Paul Gaultier, whereas those of Chirac are usually used for banquets and official receptions for weddings, births and funerals.

Jospin is to declare his candidacy, according to his entourage, in the early days of March, whereas Mr Chirac is expected to make his declaration on the following day or two.

Elections are to be held on two Sundays, April 21 and May 5th. Legislative elections are then to follow on two subsequent Sundays, June 9 and 16.

Then too, there is the Middle East, a subject on which the two leading candidates have in the past expressed significant differences, but which for the moment seems also not to figure as a priority of any political discussion during the campaign.

According to many political observers France’s relationship to Israel and the Arab World seems of quintessential importance to separating the two men as their campaign heads inexorably towards the final round of elections on May 5.