* Fillon fraud inquiry is widened

* Fillon's camp denounces "soap opera" of media leaks

* A political ally attacks his economic programme

* Kremlin says report of introductions to Putin is "fake news"

(Adds party grandee's criticism, Kremlin reaction, Socialist call)

By Richard Balmforth

PARIS, March 22 (Reuters) - Right-wing presidential candidate Francois Fillon was back under fire on Wednesday following new media reports of conflicts of financial and political interest while a party ally attacked a key part of his radical economic recovery programme.

As investigators broadened their inquiry into hundreds of thousands of euros that Fillon paid to his wife Penelope and children, his campaign chief denounced a daily "soap opera" of media leaks which he said was designed to hurt Fillon's prospects of being elected president in May.

"It's clear that these are orchestrated leaks," Bruno Retailleau, Fillon's campaign coordinator, told RTL radio. "We're being dragged into a soap opera," he said.

Once the frontrunner, the 63-year-old conservative former prime minister has fallen to third place in polls and risks being eliminated in the April 23 first round of the election in favour of a runoff between far-right leader Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, an independent centrist.

Apart from the sleaze allegations which have dogged his campaign since Le Canard enchaine newspaper broke the scandal of "Penelope-gate" in late January, Fillon suddenly faced criticism from an influential member of his The Republicans party over his radical economic programme.

Speaking out against Fillon's proposal to axe 500,000 public sector jobs, party grandee Francois Baroin said: "The state cannot force local authorities to reduce the workforce as proposed."

"I am telling Francois Fillon: 'Watch out. Danger ahead!'", said Baroin, who heads the national association of French mayors, an influential group which Fillon was due to address later on Wednesday.

A source close to the Fillon investigation said on Tuesday that the fraud inquiry into misuse of public funds had been widened to include suspicion that false documents had been presented to justify the employment of his family members.

A lawyer for Fillon's British-born wife strongly denied these specific allegations. "Since Penelope Fillon's past activities on behalf of her husband were real, all the documents pertaining to this work are also unquestionably genuine," lawyer Pierre Cornut-Gentille said in a statement.



RUSSIAN DENIAL

Additionally, Le Canard enchaine reported in its latest edition that a Lebanese billionaire paid a company owned by Fillon $50,000 in 2015 to arrange introductions to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Total TOTF.PA CEO Patrick Pouyanne.

That report drew a denial from the Kremlin. "It is what in English we call 'fake news,'" Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, when asked to comment.

The new reports add to a growing list of sleaze allegations against Fillon, which include a gift of luxury suits worth thousands of euros from a friend, and pushed the Socialist party on Wednesday to call on him to pull out of the race.

"The list of actions for which you are being reproached is long, too long, much too long. And it is getting longer all the time," the party said in a statement.

"Nothing can justify you maintaining your candidacy. We are asking you expressly to withdraw from the presidential election," it said.

Fillon has consistently denied wrongdoing since the scandal broke in late January, though he has admitted errors of judgment, and fought off rebellions in his party's ranks to maintain his bid for the Elysee.

But he is suffering from comparison now with the case of the Socialist interior minister, Bruno le Roux.

Le Roux immediately quit on Tuesday over similar payments to members of his family within 24 hours of the media allegations surfacing - conduct which Fillon's rivals are touting as honourable alongside Fillon's intransigence.

Retailleau, Fillon's campaign chief, argued however that the drip-feed of sleaze allegations was derailing the pre-election competition between candidates.

"There's a problem when there's a conflict of interest ... but that is not the case with Francois Fillon," he said.

The favourite in opinion polls to win power on May 7 is now Macron, who is ardently pro-European and seeks to transcend traditional left-versus-right political cleavages.

Macron was booed on Wednesday when he set out his plans to cut local spending to an audience of hundreds of mayors, but stood his ground.

He is tipped to convincingly beat Marine Le Pen, leader of the anti-EU, anti-immigrant National Front party.

An Opinionway poll published on Wednesday showed Le Pen coming first in the first round with 26 percent to Macron's 24 percent, but with the centrist then going on to beat her in the runoff by 62 percent to 38 percent.

UBS Wealth Management however said Le Pen's chances should not be under-estimated, saying there was a 40 percent chance that she would be the next president. ($1 = 0.9270 euros) (Reporting by Brian Love, Chine Labbe, Yann Le Guernigou, Michel Rose; Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Adrian Croft) ((brian.love@thomsonreuters.com; +33 1 4949 5363; Reuters Messaging: brian.love.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))