But the US first lady, it says, “does not appreciate the star system and
is not keen to be associated with the sulphurous French first lady,”
citing Mrs Obama’s decision to spend her free time at the G8 in Aquila in
July last year with Sarah Brown.

“Nicolas (Sarkozy’s) bling-bling and Carla’s tumultuous former (love)
life don’t make the Sarkozy couple very good company in the Obamas’ eyes”,
according to the book, which claims that the US first couple had long tried
to steer clear of their French counterparts.

While the US first lady had thrown herself into fighting obesity in the US,
the image-obsessed Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy’s charitable works were described in
the book as “largely an empty shell” and her lack of warmth made
her an “anti-Diana”.

The two ladies’ approach to glitz was worlds apart too. While Mrs Obama fired
Desiree Rogers, her social secretary, after she posed in designer clothes
and jewellery for Vogue, Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy had no qualms telling Le Figaro
the best way to relax was to fly off to a private island in Bora Bora for
?¬20,000 a week.

However, Mr Sarkozy’s relationship with Mr Obama had got off to “disastrous”
start well before Carla arrived on the scene, Miss Lahouri writes.

Mr Sarkozy met the then democratic senator in 2006 just after a stormy row
with his second wife, Cecilia. “There ensued a minute of silence during
which Cecilia and Nicolas threw each other dark looks.” An embarrassed
Mr Obama eventually broke the stalemate by telling Cecilia: “It’s
complicated for Michelle too. But’s it’s OK, you’ll see.” The pair were
divorced a year later.

Miss Lahouri added fresh fuel to her controversial book yesterday by
mentioning rumours about Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy’s plans for her marriage if her
husband is no longer president of France
in 2012.

“I can only repeat what the fashion designer Christian Lacroix told me,”
she told the Swiss daily 20 minutes.

“He said that recently he asked Carla, ‘Now that you have had everything,
what are you going to do?’

“She didn’t answer him. She simply smiled.

“But one thing is certain, Carla hasn’t changed since she was a teenager.
She’s still very coy, very wily.”

The book details the affairs that Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy has had with a long list
of celebrity boyfriends, with one describing her as a “tigress”
and “Amazon”.

It also claims that the 42-year-old Italian heiress has had plastic surgery
despite her claims never to have come under the knife.

Miss Lahouri writes that on the couple’s first summer holiday at Mrs
Bruni-Sarkozy’s £2 million Riviera villa last year, the French first lady in
invited three former partners as house guests, including Rafaël Enthoven,
the father of her child, as well as French actor Vincent Pérez and pop star
Louis Bertignac. Mr Sarkozy, she adds, has no problems with the set-up.

The book also recounts her “fury” at Rachida Dati, the former
justice minister, who her husband’s entourage blamed for spreading unfounded
rumours that both she and her husband were having affairs earlier this year. “How
dare she? I want her struck off the list, the b—-,” she is said to
have exclaimed.

At first seen as a calming influence on her husband, the book claims she has
gradually become a liability and is seen as a frothy left-leaning
Marie-Antoinette figure who irks the Right.

But a poll released today in Le Nouvel Observateur magazine, suggested that
over half of French people think she makes a good ambassador for the
country, and that her approval rating is much higher among right-wing
sympathisers.