Reports: French first lady gives birth to girl

French President Nicolas Sarkozy puts his hands on his pregnant wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy as they greet leaders for dinner at the G8 Summit in Deauville in this May 26, 2011 file photo.

French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy gave birth to a baby girl on Wednesday night - the first infant born to a sitting president of modern-day France, the French media reported.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, finishing up a meeting in Frankfurt on the euro debt crisis, was absent when the couple's first child was born shortly before 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), according to BFM TV. He reportedly arrived at the small, private Muette Clinic about 11 p.m. (0900 GMT) - his third trip Wednesday to the facility.

Europe 1 radio said the birth "went well" for the 43-year-old mother, a singer and former supermodel. She entered the medical facility in western Paris in the morning accompanied by Sarkozy, according to the reports.

There was no official confirmation of the birth. The presidential entourage reiterated earlier Wednesday that no birth announcement would be forthcoming.

The couple had been coy about the impending birth from the start, with measured doses of information.

"It's obviously a happy event," Nadine Morano, a junior minister and friend of the president, told BFM, clearly reacting to the news reports. Sarkozy was "very attentive, full of attention toward Carlo" when he spoke with her by phone on Tuesday during a flight with the minister to Nice, she said.

The couple married in February 2008, less than a year after Sarkozy took office iand less than four months after his divorce from second wife Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz.

The Italian-born first lady has a 10-year-old son from a previous relationship and the president has three sons from his two previous marriages - and is a grandfather since January.

Sarkozy was seen entering the medical clinic in late afternoon, then leaving about 30 minutes later - before rushing off to Frankfurt for a meeting on the euro debt crisis ahead of a European summit on Sunday. With a scheduled visit Thursday morning to Normandy, Sarkozy was taking a gamble. It was not immediately clear whether he would cancel his visit to Normandy.

The birth ended sometimes breathless speculation about Bruni-Sarkozy's due date. Photographers staked out the clinic since early October, with a security detail limiting their access.

Bruni-Sarkozy has said that she was staying mum about the event because she's superstitious. The couple also decided not to find out the baby's sex in advance.

"You don't have a child for the gallery," Bruni-Sarkozy told French TV network TF1 earlier this month. "I will do everything to protect this child ... I will not show photos of this child, I will never expose this child."

While a newborn surely offers new personal horizons for the presidential couple, the question is whether a baby will bolster the sympathy quotient for the perpetually unpopular Sarkozy, especially if the infant remains in the shadows.

Sarkozy is expected to seek a second mandate in presidential elections six months away. However, recent polls put his chief rival, Socialist candidate Francois Hollande, in the lead.

Bruni says Sarkozy often thinks about second term

French President Nicolas Sarkozy often thinks about whether to run for a second term in 2012, his wife, former supermodel Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, said on Wednesday.

Sarkozy, who was elected in 2007, has yet to say whether he will seek a second five-year term and has given himself until the second half of 2011 to make up his mind.

Asked if Sarkozy had sought her opinion on running again for the presidency, Bruni-Sarkozy told reporters: "He asks for my opinion about many things, as many husbands and wives do.

"But as far as that decision is concerned, it's a choice that is up to him alone," she said.

"I think he reflects a lot about it, but I'm not going to get involved. It's too important, too difficult, too personal for me to get involved. But I will follow him whatever he does," she added.

Sarkozy, his popularity ratings hovering close to record lows, is fighting to regain public confidence after pushing through an unpopular pension reform in October.

His entourage is drumming up support for a second bid and the opposition has accused him of governing as though he were already on the campaign trail.

Asked if she wanted to remain France's first lady after 2012, Bruni-Sarkozy said: "He was the one elected by the French, all that depends on him. I would be glad (to stay)."

The catwalk star-turned-chanteuse and Sarkozy married in February 2008, four months after Sarkozy divorced his second wife.

Nude Bruni photo sold for $91,000

A nude photo of French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, standing in a pigeon-toed pose and covering her modesty with her hands, was sold on Thursday in New York for $91,000, more than 20 times its expected price.

A nude portrait of France's First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is seen in this undated handout photo from Christie's Auction House.

A buyer for a Chinese art collector bought the black-and-white image, taken by photographer Michel Comte in 1993 during her modeling days, Christie's auction house said.

The sale of the photo has attracted attention since Bruni married French President Nicolas Sarkozy in February.

The photo had been expected to fetch between $3,000 and $4,000. It was auctioned as part of a sale of 140 photos from German collector Gert Elfering, which also features work by Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton and Peter Beard.

"Naked woman" costs

Meanwhile, a painting by British artist Lucian Freud will likely fetch the highest ever auction price for a work by a living artist, Christie's auction house said on Friday.

The life-size portrait of a large naked woman, called "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping," will be sold in New York on May 13.

Pilar Ordovas, head of contemporary art at Christie's in London, said the painting is coveted because it is the first from a series of Freud's paintings from the 1990s that have never been previously available on the open market.

The 1995 painting depicts Freud's subject Sue Tilley lying asleep on a worn out sofa, Christie's said.

Auctioneers estimate the British artist's work will fetch between $25-35 million. That would top the current record, set in November by Jeff Koons' "Hanging Heart" sculpture, which sold for $23.6 million.

Freud, 85, the grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, was introduced to the model, nicknamed "Big Sue," by the Australian performance artist Leigh Bowery, Christie's said.

Bidders view a nude photo of France's first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy taken by photographer Michel Comte in 1993, in New York, on April 10, 2008 in Christie's auction house of New York.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni (C) takes off her coat as her husband (L) is about to make a speech at a meeting of the French community in London, March 27, 2008.

Frances's first lady Carla Bruni arrives for a state banquet at the Guildhall in London March 27, 2008.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni attends a speech delivered by her husband at a meeting with the French community in London on March 27, 2008.

Frances's first lady Carla Bruni arrives for a state banquet at the Guildhall in London March 27, 2008.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni arrive at London Guildhall March 27, 2008 for a dinner offered by the Mayor of the City of London David Lewis.

Photos are seen on display at Christie's Auction house during a press preview in New York April 4, 2008. A nude photo of France's First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, rare Diane Arbus prints and a collection of landscapes from Ansel Adams will go on auction at Christie's next week.

French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (L) and human rights junior minister Rama Yade (R) attend a march for the release of Ingrid Betancourt in Paris April 6, 2008.

Carla Bruni in spotlight as new album on sale

France's first lady Carla Bruni poses before an interview on the set of French TV channel TF1 in Paris July 11, 2008. Bruni comes under the spotlight Friday as her much-hyped new album hits record stores across Europe, set for a tough welcome from critics of her husband President Nicolas Sarkozy.

France's first lady Carla Bruni poses before an interview on the set of French TV channel TF1 in Paris July 11, 2008.

President's new wife pleases the French

More than two-thirds of the French feel good about their new first lady, model-turned-singer Carla Bruni, and a majority feel her music career is "compatible" with her role as the president's wife, according to a new poll to appear on Sunday.

On the downside, 35 percent are not smitten with the 40-year-old spouse of President Nicolas Sarkozy and 42 percent feel she should definitely drop her music career while he is in office, said the IFOP poll to appear in the weekly Journal du Dimanche.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy visit the archeological site of Carthage, near Tunis, April, 30 2008. More than two-thirds of the French feel good about their new first lady, model-turned-singer Bruni, and a majority feel her music career is "compatible" with her role as the president's wife.

Of those polled, 64 percent felt Bruni, whose picture has been plastered over the French media since she and Sarkozy married in February after a three-month romance, "represented France well abroad."

Sixty percent felt she was "renewing the role of the French First Lady", while over half, 52 percent, felt she was a positive influence on the president -- whose own confidence rating fell to 35 percent late last month.

That poll by IFOP-JDD showed 64 percent of those questioned were "dissatisfied with Sarkozy," whose popularity plummeted earlier this year among voters worried about rising living costs and irked by his high-profile divorce and remarriage to Bruni.

The telephone poll on Bruni questioned 1,005 people this week, as a new book entitled "Carla and Nicolas, the True Story," hit French bookstores.

Written by two French journalists, it quotes Bruni as saying she had "no intention of changing jobs" but that she will not appear on stage while Sarkozy remains president.

Bruni's third album is due for release on July 21 with 14 songs, most written and composed by her.

More than two-thirds of the French feel good about their new first lady, model-turned-singer Bruni, and a majority feel her music career is "compatible" with her role as the president's wife, according to a new poll to appear on Sunday