French Socialists dogged by rows

Segolene Royal at the party congress in Reims

Segolene Royal accused her rivals of clinging to "outdated" ways

France's opposition Socialists are still looking for a new leader, after a party congress - that was meant to back a single candidate - ended in disarray.

The leadership issue will now be decided by the party's rank-and-file members on Thursday.

Three candidates - Segolene Royal, Martine Aubry and Benoit Hamon - are vying to replace outgoing chief Francois Hollande.

France's media said the Socialists had shown themselves to be "ungovernable".

The party - which seeks to challenge President Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2012 elections - has been beset by infighting since France's last Socialist President Francois Mitterrand stepped down in 1995.

'Gone mad'

At their annual congress in Reims at the weekend, top party members failed to reach consensus on a new leader.

Critics claim the party has lost meaning and a sense of itself

Party seeks leader, and leadership

Ms Royal - who had won a pre-convention ballot with 29% of members' votes - accused her rivals of clinging to "outdated" ways after they refused to rally behind her leadership bid.

One of the candidates, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, even pulled out of the race to "avoid creating further confusion".

"The Socialist Party is gravely ill," Mr Delanoe said.

In a scathing editorial, France's left-wing Liberation newspaper said that now President Sarkozy "knows that he has before him an ungovernable Socialist Party, without a clear political line, without a strategy, without an uncontested leader".

Meanwhile, the right-wing Figaro said that the Socialists "have gone mad".