JERUSALEM-PARIS (AFP-EJP)---French extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen on Thursday called on French Jews to vote for him in the upcoming presidential election, in an interview with an Israeli newspaper.

"Jews who are French and linked to France, and whose interests are those of France, should vote for me as a bloc," Le Pen, standing in his fifth and probably final presidential election, told the Israeli daily Maariv.

Le Pen, who sparked outrage in 1987 when he described World War II Nazi death camps as a "detail of history," is not known for enjoying widespread support among France’s Jewish voters.

But the 78-year-old National Front leader said in Thursday’s interview that, "I have Jewish friends and there are Jews in my party," adding that "the Jews are divided in France according to their social status."

He said that his comments in 1987 did not amount to a denial of the Holocaust.

In October 2006, Israel refused to have any contact with Le Pen's daughter Marine during a planned visit of European parliamentarians in the country. The visit was therefore cancelled. Israeli sources at the time said they could hardly imagine Marine Le Pen at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem while her father, to whom she is close, has made anti-Semitic statements.

"I did not deny the Holocaust," he told Maariv. "I only said simply that the gas chambers did not constitute but a detail in the history of World War II. It is not something that should provoke anger."

“The fact is that some Jews voted for me in 2002. They no doubt sense better than me the dangers that face our country because of the situation with security."

Le Pen, who is currently in fourth place ahead of the first-round vote on Sunday, became a force to be reckoned with in French politics when he qualified for the runoff vote in the 2002 election against Jacques Chirac, beating Socialist Lionel Jospin.

A former Foreign Legionnaire who served as an intelligence officer in Algeria and as a paratrooper in Indochina, Le Pen has been the champion of the extreme-right for 35 years, calling for an end to immigration and a halt to European integration.

Soften image

In this campaign he has sought to soften his image as a xenophobe by featuring a woman of African origin on his posters, meeting with black-rapper-from-the-suburbs Rost and visiting a Chinese World War I cemetery.

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A gifted orator, Le Pen rails against the establishment parties of the left and right, accusing them of leading the country to the brink of disaster.

But his signature issue is immigration.

His election platform calls for cutting off social benefits to foreigners and deporting illegal immigrants, a stance that he has defended for decades.

Last weekend he repeated his insinuation that the front-running presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy – who is the son of a Hungarian immigrant and a French woman of Greek Jewish origin -- was not sufficiently French to become president.

He claims that Sarkozy, who has floated the idea of a ministry for immigration and national identity and has criticised Muslims in France who "slaughter sheep in the bathtub," is copying his ideas.

While he has said he has no plans to retire, there has been speculation that his failing health may soon push him out of political life.

His daughter Marine is likely to succeed her father as leader of National Front.

After the 2002 shock in which he broke through to the second round, few are willing to write Jean-Marie Le Pen out of the picture -- especially as French polls are notorious for underestimating his support.