Paris: It's official: French President Nicolas Sarkozy says his relationship with model-turned-singer Carla Bruni is serious, and he suggested today that wedding plans are in the works.

"There is a strong chance that you will learn about it after it's already done," he said at a news conference. A newspaper reported this weekend that a wedding is expected for early February, prompting Sarkozy to joke, "It isn't the (Journal du Dimanche newspaper) that will set the date".

Sarkozy's romance with Bruni reportedly started shortly after the French leader and his second wife, Cecilia Sarkozy, divorced three months ago.

Sarkozy and Bruni, an Italian-born former model with a successful folk music career, have since been photographed together in recent weeks in locations from Disneyland Paris to the pyramids in Egypt, often entwined arm-in-arm, looking happy.

"You've understood: it is serious," Sarkozy said when asked at a news conference about their relationship.

Sarkozy said he wanted to break with a long tradition of French leaders keeping their love lives secret, with the media's tacit accord. He alluded to late former French President Fracois Mitterrand, who kept the existence of a mistress and illegitimate daughter a secret for most of his 1981-1995 presidency.
Source : PTI