Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has secretly married his girlfriend of two months, former Italian supermodel Carla Bruni, it was reported yesterday.

In the latest instalment of what French voters are calling “le Sarko show”, L’Est Republicain quoted a source “close to a witness who attended the ceremony” who said that a “small, very private” wedding took place last Thursday at the Elysee palace.

Mr Sarkozy, who divorced his wife Cecilia in October, had previously deflected speculation of remarriage by saying: “There is a strong chance that you will learn about it once it’s already been done”.

Such a union would be a contrast to the couple’s relationship so far which, in a break with French political tradition, has been conducted in front of the world’s press.

Since announcing at Disneyland Paris in December that they were seeing each other, the pair have been pictured together on an almost daily basis.

Mr Sarkozy, 52, even took Ms Bruni, 40, on an official trip to Egypt, where he was spotted in his swimming trunks carrying her six year-old son on his shoulders.

In a country more used to maintaining strict secrecy around its politicians’ private lives, the affair has taken on elements of a soap opera.

Over the past month there have been interventions from both mothers - Ms Bruni’s claiming that "my daughter is living a true love story” and that Mr Sarkozy proposed on Christmas Day.

There were even unlikely reports over the weekend that Ms Bruni may be pregnant. On Thursday journalists besieged a building in the chic 16th district of Paris after a false tip-off that the wedding was taking place at a city hall office.

The Elysee palace has so far refused to comment on the rumours, which were further boosted earlier this week after an Italian news agency reported that the couple had booked a hotel room together in Verona.

A marriage would help to defuse some of the diplomatic tensions surrounding the relationship and also possibly arrest the slide in the polls that Mr Sarkozy has experienced after he began the affair.

The couple’s unmarried status led to criticism from conservative parties during their trip to Egypt and protocol would dictate that as boyfriend and girlfriend they would be offered separate bedrooms when they visit Windsor Castle in March.

Ms Bruni would be the French president’s third wife.

He has one son from an 11-year marriage to Cecilia Ciganer, which ended a few months after his summer election, and two adult sons from a previous marriage.

Ms Bruni has not been married before but has a string of high-profile previous lovers including Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton and Donald Trump. She told a magazine last year: “Monogamy bores me terribly.”

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