French President Francois Hollande's Socialist party and its allies have won the largest bloc of seats in the first round of voting for the country's lower house of parliament.

Official results for Sunday's vote show the left wing parties with about 46 percent of the vote in the 577-seat National Assembly.

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative UMP party won around 34 percent of the vote, while the far right National Front received more than 13 percent.

The final makeup of the National Assembly will be determined after a second round of voting scheduled for June 17.

The Socialists and their allies already control the French Senate, the upper house of parliament.

Mr. Hollande wants to enact measures he hopes will help curb unemployment and kick-start the Eurozone's second largest economy.

Voter turnout in Sunday's poll was reported at 48 percent, slightly lower than the 49 percent in the 2007 parliamentary vote.

Sunday's winners include National Front leader Marie Le Pen, who will move on to next week's runoff for a seat from the northern town of Henin-Beaumont. Le Pen finished third in last month's presidential election. She boasted Sunday that the right-wing National Front is now France's third post powerful political party.

President Hollande beat Mr. Sarkozy in a May 6 presidential runoff. He needs lawmakers' support to persuade European Union leaders, especially German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to focus on spurring economic growth rather than enforcing austerity in struggling European economies.