French socialist¹ Francois Hollande has been celebrating victory in the country's presidential election.

法国社会党成员弗朗索瓦·奥朗德赢得法国总统选举胜利。

Mr Hollande - who polled just under 52% of votes in Sunday's run-off election - said he was "proud to have been capable of giving people hope again".

Centre-right incumbent² Nicolas Sarkozy is the first French president not to win a second term since 1981.

Mr Hollande has vowed³ to rework a deal on government debt in eurozone member countries to try and promote growth.

Admitting defeat soon after polls closed on Sunday evening, centre-right incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy wished "good luck" to Mr Hollande.

Jubilant Hollande supporters gathered at the place de la Bastille in Paris - a traditional rallying point of the Left - to celebrate.

Mr Hollande - the first Socialist to win the French presidency⁴ since Francois Mitterrand in the 1980s - earlier gave his victory speech in his stronghold of Tulle in central France.

He said he would push ahead with his pledge to refocus EU fiscal⁵ efforts from austerity to "growth".

"Europe is watching us, austerity can no longer be the only option," he said.

After his speech in Tulle, Mr Hollande headed to Brive airport to fly to Paris to address supporters at the place de la Bastille.

"I am the president of the youth of France," he told the assembled crowd of tens of thousands of supporters.

"You are a movement that is rising up throughout Europe," he said.

Mr Hollande will begin work on forming a new government on Monday and must act quickly to reassure⁶ other eurozone countries he is up to the considerable challenge he faces, reports the BBC's Christian⁷ Fraser in Paris.

Mr Hollande feeds a renewed sense of hope in the country - particularly among the young - that amid the austerity, there can be jobs and salaries, our correspondent adds. Mr Hollande offers a fresh start - but the debt problems for France are still the same.

Mr Hollande has called for a renegotiation of a hard-won European treaty on budget discipline championed by German Chancellor⁸ Angela Merkel and Mr Sarkozy.

Mrs Merkel had congratulated the president-elect by phone and invited him to Berlin to hold talks soon.

Mr Hollande's campaign director, Pierre Moscovici, told AFP news agency that the two had agreed to work together on "a strong Franco-German relationship in the interest of Europe".

UK Prime Minister David Cameron also called Mr Hollande to congratulate him.