Paris, March 30 (IANS): France's Conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) Party led by ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy appeared to have come first in the final round of regional elections.

The elections were held on Sunday. However, Paris and Lyon, France's two biggest cities, were excluded from the polls.

Exit polls on Sunday placed UMP at first place with 37 percent of the votes, challenging the surging anti-Europe party, the National Front (FN) and claiming sweeping wins in many regions once held by the Left, Xinhua reported on Monday.

According to ifop poll, the governing Socialist party and allies collected 35 percent of the votes, followed by the FN whose candidates reported the support of 28 percent of about four million voters in the second round.

The conservative UMP won 68 of 102 departments compared with the 41 they held previously, the polls said.

With the large victory in regional runoff providing an impetus to his political comeback, Sarkozy announced "a new phase" for France.

"Never under the Fifth Republic, our political family had won so many departments. The French people have massively rejected the policies of Francois Hollande and his government," Sarkozy said.

"This is a sign of a lasting upheaval of our political landscape and we will all need to draw lessons from it," French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said, pledging to energise efforts to tackle economic troubles, mainly unemployment.

"Our economy is getting better. Thanks to the reforms we implemented, the first signs of recovery are there, but they are still not discernible," he added.