French right close to collapse after talks fail

France's main right-wing opposition party was close to collapse on Monday after talks failed to resolve a bitter leadership dispute and an ex-prime minister vowed to take the battle to the courts. The contested leadership vote has thrown into turmoil ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP -- still reeling from its loss of the presidency and parliament this year -- and raised the spectre of an unprecedented split on the right. Called in to mediate the damaging dispute, party heavyweight Alain Juppe threw in the towel after only 45 minutes of talks between ex-prime minister Francois Fillon and party secretary general Jean-Francois Cope late Sunday. Fillon quickly blamed his rival and raised the stakes by promising to turn to the courts. "Jean-Francois Cope holds sole responsibility for a failure that hurts our party and, furthermore, undermines the image of political activity," Fillon said in a statement. "Anxious to break the deadlock into which Jean-Francois Cope's successive power grabs have plunged our party, I will refer the matters to the courts to restore the truth of the results and give a voice back to (party) activists," he said. Cope held his ground, saying he was awaiting the decision of a party electoral appeals commission. He did not want to "mix the judicial process with the political process", he added. The commission suspended its ruminations overnight and was set to meet again later Monday morning. The Fillon camp considers the committee to be largely pro-Cope. Supporters of the former prime minister hinted at an initiative on Monday to end the issue, without giving away any details. Fillon, 58, and Cope, 48, have traded accusations of fraud and bad faith since last Sunday's party vote ended with Cope ahead by a handful of votes. Cope was declared the winner of the leadership battle by a margin of just 98 votes in a contest in which more than 150,000 party members voted. The party electoral commission has since said that ballots cast in France's overseas territories that were not counted would have reversed the result. The Cope camp meanwhile has claimed he would have