Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France's National Front, said he was pulling out of regional elections Monday after a row with his daughter who now leads the far-right party.

Le Pen incurred the wrath of his daughter Marine Le Pen by repeating an assertion that the Nazi gas chambers were a "detail of history" and following that up with a defence of France's wartime leader Petain, who collaborated with the Nazis.

He told the Figaro magazine he would not be standing in the southeast of France for the party even though "I think I was the best candidate for the National Front".