After slamming Europe's austerity fix for the debt crisis, Francois Hollande's crusade for growth began picking up support even before his win, but can he bring the skeptics and the markets around?

One of only a handful of Socialist leaders at the European Union table, Hollande's win adds another voice for the left after the ousters of Britain's Gordon Brown, Portugal's Jose Socrates and Spain's Jose Luis Zapatero.

A Syrian daily on Monday hailed the defeat in France's presidential elections of Nicolas Sarkozy, whose foreign minister Alain Juppe had raised the prospect of military intervention to end the crisis.

"The Sarkozy-Juppe duo in the dustbin of history," announced the front page headline of pro-government daily, al-Watan.

European and world leaders reached out Monday to president-elect Francois Hollande, France's first Socialist head of state in 17 years, despite jitters about his pledge to renegotiate Europe's austerity pact.

The euro sank and stock markets fell as the results of the presidential vote in France and Greece's general election stoked anxiety about the fate of austerity policies designed to end the Eurozone’s crippling debt crisis.

Final results for France's presidential election confirmed Monday that Socialist candidate Francois Hollande won with 51.62 percent of the vote to Nicolas Sarkozy's 48.38, the interior ministry said.

The final official tally recorded more than 18 million votes for the victor -- who had already been recognized as president-elect. Sarkozy got 16.9 million votes and 2.1 million people cast blank or spoiled ballots.

Afghan forces are ready to take responsibility for security in 2013, the defense ministry said Monday, reacting to a pledge to withdraw French troops early by president-elect Francois Hollande.

"For us a NATO stance is more important than individual decisions by individual nations," ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told Agence France Presse. "And Afghanistan is well prepared to take over all security responsibilities in 2013."

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy conceded defeat to his Socialist rival Francois Hollande on Sunday and signaled that he intends to step back from frontline politics.

"The French people have made their choice... Francois Hollande is president of France and he must be respected," the outgoing leader told an emotional crowd of supporters, adding that he had phoned his successor to wish him well.

Francois Hollande was elected France's first Socialist president in nearly two decades on Sunday, dealing a humiliating defeat to incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and shaking up European politics.

The result will have major implications for Europe as it struggles to emerge from a financial crisis and for France, the eurozone's second-largest economy and a nuclear-armed permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

He dubbed himself "Mr. Normal" during France's presidential election campaign, a modest scooter-riding everyman in touch with the concerns of ordinary voters.

But, after winning France's presidential vote, Socialist Francois Hollande faces some far-from-ordinary challenges as the leader of the eurozone's second-largest economy, a nuclear-armed U.N. Security Council member.

Nicolas Sarkozy's defeat on Sunday marked the end of a five-year presidency during which he divided a France that had put its hopes in him to break with a history of timid government complacency.

Never has a French president been so disliked, as much for his personal style as for his austere deficit-busting policies, and the right-wing leader vowed months ago to quit politics if defeated.

France held its breath Saturday on the eve of a presidential election that Socialist Francois Hollande was predicted to win despite incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy closing the gap after wooing the far-right.

Political speeches and new opinion polls have been banned since a particularly ferocious campaign ended on Friday night, but the last poll published ahead of the deadline forecast a 52-48 percent win for Hollande.