François Fillon, a former prime minister who has promised to enact radical "Thatcherite" economic reforms in France, has won the presidential nomination for France's main conservative party after trouncing his more moderate rival at primaries on Sunday.

Mr Fillon, a social conservative who opposes multiculturalism and has called for a new understanding with Vladimir Putin's Russia, is now expected to face off against Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right Front National, in presidential elections next May.

"My approach has been understood: France can't bear its decline. It wants truth and it wants action," Mr Fillon told supporters at his campaign headquarters as he accepted the Republicans party nomination.