France’s far-right National Front party has retreated from plans to abolish the right to dual citizenship.

In an interview this week, the party’s presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, said she still believed dual citizenship holders should decide which country they want to be a citizen of, but added: “I’m not locked into abolishing dual citizenship”.

Ms Le Pen, who polls predict will easily win enough votes to enter the second round of the upcoming election, previously said if she were president she would not allow dual citizenship with non-EU countries. Asked specifically about Jews with Israeli citizenship, she said: “Israel isn’t an EU member”. She added: “I’m asking the Israelis to choose their nationality. It doesn’t mean that if they don’t choose French nationality they have to leave.”

However, during a visit to Lebanon this week, she told the French language Lebanese paper L’Orient Le Jour she would permit dual citizenship if France had an agreement on the matter with the counterpart country.

The first round of the French presidential election takes place on April 23.