France's First Lady Carla Bruni sees herself as a Parisian Jackie Kennedy, she has told a US magazine.

The former supermodel, pop singer and now wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy said she welcomed comparisons with John F Kennedy's wife who was renowned for her sense of style particularly during her husband's presidency.

"She was so young and modern," she told Vanity Fair magazine. "Unconsciously I would project myself more like Jackie Kennedy than for instance, Madame de Gaulle, who would be much more like the classical French woman behind her husband."

She added, "There is a great photograph of Madame de Gaulle serving soup to her husband. I do serve soup to my husband sometimes, but I wouldn't get photographed that way."

Miss Bruni married the French president in February after a whirlwind romance that scandalised France, damaging Mr Sarkozy's approval rating. Although it is now beginning to rise again, Mme Sarkozy admits she has regrets. "My mistake is that I fell madly in love and did not take the measure of how enormous this was going to be," she said.

If she didn't realise the impact of her relationship with Sarkozy, she was appalled when nude pictures of her were splashed all over the internet. But, she says, her husband didn't mind at all.

"I never realised how many nude pictures I did before I met Nicolas," she said adding that when she showed him the pictures on her computer, he told her: "Oh, I like this one. Can I have a print of it?"

Describing their first meeting, at a dinner party at the home of political adviser Jacques Seguela, she insisted "I was in love at first sight. I was really surprised by him, by his youth, his energy, his physical charm - which you could not actually see so much on television - his charisma. I was surprised by everything."

She added "The normal situation would be to date slowly, but he's not a slow man. He said 'I'm completely in love with you, and I'd really love to marry you.'"

The first Mrs Sarkozy approves of her, she said, claiming that Marie-Dominique, who M. Sarkozy left for his second wife Cecilia, had told her "I think you can make him happy." Now, she says, she hopes she can become friends with Cecilia. However, she admits, "I think she is not ready, and Nicolas is not. They are still burned by their love."

Testimony, by Nicolas Sarkozy, Buy the book

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