TEHRAN -- The landslide victory of incumbent French President Jacques Chirac in the second round of the French presidential election over his extremist rival Jean-Marie Le Pen has stirred a wave of happiness among his supporters.

However, many political analysts believe that the May 5 election was actually a referendum on the National Front, and that the fact that Chirac received over 82 percent of the vote does not represent a victory for Chirac's party. They argue that some 60 percent of those who voted for Chirac were in fact voting against the racist attitudes of Jean-Marie Le Pen.

In other words, Chirac obtained the same 20 percent of the votes he gained in the first round of the election.

Chirac as well as the French center-right are indeed in a sensitive situation. In order to avail themselves of their victory to win the parliamentary election in six weeks time, they need a moderate right-winger as prime minister to realize some of Chirac's election campaign promises.

Some analysts believe that the propaganda against the National Front and Le Pen, both inside and outside France, was of such an intensity that it brought the people of France to the polling booths to vote for democracy. But, they maintain, this does not mean that the French have forgotten Chirac's financial corruption cases when he was the mayor of Paris. Therefore, Chirac will be forced to act cautiously during his second term of office.

However, if French president is tempted by his landslide victory over his extremist rival to implement his economic plans in accordance with the Mastricht Treaty of European Union, his party will pave the way for the full collapse of the whole center-right faction in France.

Capping one of France's most dramatic presidential campaigns, conservative incumbent Jacques Chirac cruised to a second term in elections Sunday, shattering the challenge of far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Provisional results gave Chirac 82.08 percent. Le Pen, Head of the Anti-Immigration National Front (FN), won 17.92 percent -- only slightly above the first round score on April 21 which set off the political upheaval of the last two weeks.

Flag-waving crowds braved cold rain to take to the streets of Paris to celebrate Chirac's triumph -- and the humiliation of the FN leader, who said Friday he would regard a vote of less than 30 percent a defeat for himself and for France.

"Tonight we are celebrating the republic," Chirac said at a brief appearance at the place De la Republique, accompanied by his wife Bernadette. "France has refused to give in to the temptation of intolerance and demagoguery."

Earlier on National Television, he promised to use his victory to bring France together after the trauma of Le Pen's breakthrough.

"I have heard and I understand your call for the republic to live, for the nation to rally together," he said.

The victory followed two weeks in which a nation, shocked out of inertia by Le Pen's surprise first round triumph, staged a series of public demonstrations not seen since May 1968 to condemn his isolationist and xenophobic policies.

World leaders immediately breathed a collective sigh of relief. "The extremist, isolationist policies of Jean-Marie Le Pen have been rejected and crushed," said European Commission President Romano Prodi.

"Today the French people have once again demonstrated that their nation belongs to the heart of Europe," he said in a message congratulating Chirac on winning a second term in office.

"The French people have rejected extremism without ambiguity," said German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, while British Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was a "victory for democracy and a defeat for extremism."

The scale of Chirac's triumph was larger than expected and a record for French presidential elections.

Immediately hailed as a massive endorsement by the president's supporters, it also allowed the French left, which had urged supporters to vote for Chirac after the first-round defeat of socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin, to claim victory as its own.

"France has rediscovered its colors, and the world has rediscovered France," said Socialist Party Leader Francois Hollande.

For the FN leader, the result was a severe disappointment, signaling a failure to break out of the core vote he achieved on April 21, but he blamed it on "Soviet-style methods" and promised to lead his party to success in parliamentary elections in June.

"All the television, radio, press -- all methods of exerting influence -- were at the service of the same cause -- this great honest man who everyone was calling 'superliar' a short time ago," he said.

Chirac, 69, who during the fortnight separating the two rounds of the election posed as a champion of France's republican values in order to rally as large a vote as possible, was expected to act quickly to exploit the momentum of his victory.

On Monday he was to accept the resignation of Jospin -- his prime minister since 1997 -- before appointing his own team to lead the right into the crucial legislative elections only five weeks away.

Favorites for prime minister or other top posts included former small businesses minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, former budget minister Nicolas Sarkozy, just retired European Parliament president Nicole Fontaine, European Commissioner Michel Barnier, and Chirac's Reelection Campaign Director Antoine Rufenacht.

After five years in which he has been constrained by "cohabitation" with a socialist prime minister, the president has promised quick action to tackle the country's main problems, which include rising crime, a bloated state sector and declining international competitiveness

For that he needs first to ensure the majority in the National Assembly, without which he will once again be reduced to a figurehead with authority only in foreign and defense affairs.

But with the country's political landscape transformed after Le Pen's shock first-round triumph, Chirac supporters are concerned the center-right will be squeezed out by left-wing parties united in their desire for revenge after their presidential humiliation.

Chirac's reelection represents a remarkable victory for a man who has been the butt of criticism and ridicule after being named in a series of corruption scandals during his time as mayor of Paris.

After successfully claiming presidential immunity in 2001 to resist the approaches of investigating magistrates, it means he can defer for another five years the moment when he has to testify before the courts.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has welcomed the reelection victory of French President Jacques Chirac over far-right rival Jean-Marie Le Pen in Sunday's runoff.

"Iran is happy with the results of the second round (of voting) and with the reelection of Mr. Chirac," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi told journalists Monday.

"Relations between Iran and France have developed well in recent years, and the reelection of Mr. Chirac will result in good relations continuing."

Chirac was returned to office with a majority of 82 percent.

Meanwhile, center-right French President Jacques Chirac named a little-known loyalist, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, as his new prime minister Monday, one day after winning a crushing reelection victory over far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Raffarin, a 53-year-old senator and former junior minister who played a key role in Chirac's campaign, will replace Lionel Jospin, the socialist prime minister who resigned earlier Monday following the defeat of his own bid to become president.

His first task will be to draw up the list of ministers of the new government, and then play point man for the right's battle to win parliamentary elections scheduled in five weeks' time.

Raffarin handled the small business portfolio in the 1995-1997 government of Alain Juppe, a former prime minister and Chirac's closest political confidant.

Juppe and Chirac's rally for the Republic (RPR) Party were swept from government in 1997, when Chirac called miscalculated early legislative elections that resulted in a win for Jospin's left-wing coalition.

The new prime minister hails from the provinces along France's Atlantic coast. He attracted Chirac's eye for his energetic role in the free-market Liberal Democracy Party allied to the RPR.

If he leads the right to victory in the June 9 and 16 legislative elections, he can expect to be a lieutenant to Chirac as the president embarks on a series of promised reforms focused on fighting growing crime and increasing France's stature in the European Union and on the world stage.

According to AFP, if he loses, the Right will again be relegated to the opposition benches and Chirac will be hamstrung, forced to share executive power with another hostile leftist government that will rob him of authority in areas except foreign affairs and defense.

Earlier on Monday, Lionel Jospin resigned as French Prime Minister, handing his notice and that of his government to reelected Center-Right President Jacques Chirac, officials said.

Jospin, 64, had announced his intention to resign after being eliminated from the presidential race in an April 21 first round of voting, edged out by far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Chirac, who crushed Le Pen on Sunday with an unprecedented 82 percent of the vote, was expected to name a successor to Jospin as prime minister later Monday.

Jospin led the socialist-led left-wing government that has been in place since 1997, when Chirac called miscalculated by calling early parliamentary elections.

For the past five years, he and Chirac have shared power in an uneasy "cohabitation".

Jospin left his presidential office in Paris early Monday for the short trip to Chirac's palace off the Champs-Elysees. There, he entered, handed over his resignation letter.

Chirac is expected to announce a replacement for Jospin who will be drawn from his own right-wing camp. The successor will have to lead the right into new parliamentary elections to be held June 9 and 16.

If the right wins those elections, the new government will stay and Chirac will have wide-ranging power to implement a raft of campaign pledges.

They include: cutting taxes, increasing military spending, imposing "zero impunity" to stop growing crime, creating a special public security ministry that reports directly to him, loosening the 35-hour workweek introduced by the socialists, and pushing for longer serving EU president.