PARIS (AFP) - French newspapers on Monday splashed photos of President Nicolas Sarkozy with singer and former supermodel Carla Bruni, fuelling speculation of romance just two months after the presidents divorce.
Sarkozy, 53, and Bruni, 39, were snapped together at the Disneyland theme park near Paris on Saturday. They made little apparent attempt to hide the fact that they were there together, though none of the photos showed them any closer than shoulder-to-shoulder.
The Elysee Palace would not comment to AFP on the pictures. But LExpress magazine editor Christophe Barbier told French television that Bruni -- whose past boyfriends include rock stars Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton -- had confirmed to him that she was romantically involved with Sarkozy.
"We must now wait and see how far the president will go in presenting Carla Bruni officially" as his companion, Barbier told LCI television.
"Carla Bruni and Sarkozy are out in the open," wrote the popular Le Parisien newspaper on its front page that featured one of the photos of the couple.
Even the right wing newspaper Le Figaro ran a photograph of Bruni under the headline "Carla Bruni, the presidents companion".
Le Figaro said "the presence of Sarkozy and Carla Bruni in such a public place suggests that they do not intend to specifically hide themselves."
The leftwing Liberation wrote that the couple had brought their "fairy tale" romance to Disneyland.
LExpress said about 10 photographers were present at the park to take the pictures and that the couple seemed "very much at ease" with the attention paid to them.
Bruni, who will be 40 on Sunday, was born in Italy and was the heiress to a tyre manufacturing fortune. She was a top fashion model before turning to pop music. She was married to philosophy professor, Raphael Enthoven, and the couple had one daughter.
Sarkozy, 53, has two sons from his first marriage and one son from his 11-year marriage to Cecilia, which ended in a much publicised divorce in October.
Three French magazines are to publish photos of the Disneyland outing this week, according to the website of LExpress magazine.
The photos are to be published this week in Closer, Paris Match and Point de Vue, which wrote "Carla Bruni: the presidents queen of hearts."
French politicians declined to be drawn into the whirlwind of commentary on the the presidents new friend. Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande, who has just gone through a highly public separation from leftwing presidential candidate Segolene Royale, said the couple had a right to privacy.
"Its their life. Either they decided to come out as a couple in public, and I think its probably the case, or they have a right to have their privacy protected," said Hollande.
