Sarkozy hand-in-hand with Bruni on visit to Egypt

Sporting dark sunglasses and holding hands, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his model-turned-singer girlfriend Carla Bruni arrived in Luxor today for a private visit to Egypt.

The couple were whisked off in a convoy of Egyptian presidential security cars to Luxor's famed Old Winter Palace hotel on the east bank of the Nile.

Security was stepped up around the hotel and at the three archaeological sites Sarkozy and Bruni are to visit later today - the Luxor Temple, the city's museum and the Karnak Temple.

In Paris, France-2 television said Bruni and Sarkozy would spend three days at the Winter Palace. The TV also said Luxor police were cracking down on photographers staking out the hotel and that a camera crew spent a night in jail for filming the hotel's facade.

An official visit of the French leader would start next Monday, when Sarkozy and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak are to hold talks.

French media have also reported Sarkozy and Bruni would travel to Sharm el-Sheikh on Thursday, where the couple and their entourage, which reportedly also included Sarkozy's mother Andree and one of his sons, would stay in a villa owned by an Abu Dhabi sheikh.

Sarkozy and Bruni first surfaced as a couple earlier this month on a visit to Disneyland Paris and two months after the French president's divorce from his wife of 11 years, Cecilia.

Bruni, 39, an Italian-born French citizen, won critical and public acclaim for her first folk album in 2003, singing in a raspy, whispery voice.

She has dated a range of famous men, including Mick Jagger and Donald Trump, and was also reportedly linked to singer Eric Clapton and actor Vincent Perez.

Sarkozy, 52, often put his private and family life on display for the media but bristled at the interest in his tempestuous relationship with Cecilia, his second marriage.