CAIRO: French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to spend Christmas on the banks of the Nile amid tight security and a swarm of paparazzi seeking intimate shots of his new companion, former supermodel Carla Bruni.
Sarkozy, 52, will arrive in Luxor on Christmas Day with a female companion and some family members, an Egyptian security source said, before he heads to the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.
He will then travel to Cairo on his first official Middle Eastern visit for talks with President Hosni Mubarak on Dec. 30 – but French media attention is almost entirely focused on his burgeoning relationship with ex-model turned singer Bruni.
Bruni, who turned 39 on Sunday, was first snapped with recent divorcee Sarkozy at Disneyland outside Paris last week, and since then speculation has mounted about whether they would spend Christmas together.
However the president has remained tight-lipped about his relationship with the elegant Italian brunette, heiress to a tyre fortune whose former boyfriends include rock stars Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton.
Sarko, as he is known by both supporters and opponents, will be staying at a suite in the Victorian elegance of Luxor s Old Winter Palace hotel on the east bank of the Nile, an Egyptian source said.
He is expected here and the security measures are draconian, an official in Luxor told AFP, with Sarkozy set to go jogging daily along the corniche.
Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosny, who is seeking to become the new boss of Paris-based Unesco, will be helping the presidential family push through throngs of tourists to visit the ancient tombs on the Nile s west bank. After Luxor, the presidential delegation will travel to the resort of Sharm El-Sheikh to be joined by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner behind the high walls of a luxury villa.
The property has its own private beach and security will remain tight given the possibility of roving photographers in speedboats. Sharm was also the site of a 2005 terrorist bombing that killed 65 people.
His holidays over, Sarkozy travels to Cairo on Dec. 30 where he will head a 200-strong French delegation for a 24-hour official visit.
Earlier this month Sarkozy hailed Mubarak, 79, as one of the most enlightened observers in the region and on its developments.
But since becoming president in May, Sarkozy has ruffled Arab feathers by showing friendship for Israel and rejecting anti-Americanism – widely seen as a change of policy from his pro-Arab and pro-African predecessors.
In general French policy since Sarkozy is changing and adventurous … using the same means as the administration of [US President George W.] Bush, influential columnist Salama Ahmed Salama wrote in the official Al-Ahram daily.
The French president is due to return to Paris to see in the New Year on Dec. 31.
