Marine Le Pen has admitted that a section of a key French presidential campaign speech she made on Monday was lifted from one made by defeated conservative rival François Fillon just two weeks earlier.

Shortly after the speech at a rally in Villepinte, a video was shared on Twitter highlighting the similarities with one made by Mr Fillon, the former conservative election frontrunner, who was eliminated in the first round of the election.

On April 15, Mr Fillon, of the centre-Right Republican party, made a speech in Puy-en-Velay in which he made specific mention of the geography of France's borders, paid tribute to the French language and spoke of a third "French way" for the 21st century between globalisation and Islamic fundamentalism.

Facing accusations of plagiarism she acknowledged that she had copied part of Mr Fillon's speech.

Speaking to TF1 news, she said: "I take full responsibilty. It's not bad because this speech was seen hundreds of times."

"We share with François Fillon in part the same vision of France. It was a way of recalling this."

Ms Le Pen, who has temporarily stepped down as head of France's Front National party in a bid to widen her appeal, repeated almost verbatim four passages from Mr Fillon speech's speech.