SAINT-DENIS - LAWYERS for Mrs Carla Bruni-Sarkozy sought 125,000 euros (S$246,000) in damages on Monday from a clothing firm for selling a shopping bag featuring a nude photo of the first lady.

The wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy was suing the clothing firm Pardon, based in the French island of Reunion, for the white canvas bag that she argued violates her image and should be banned from sale.

The bag features a black-and-white picture of Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy taken from a famous 1993 photo of the model standing upright in the nude.

'Neither Ms Carla Bruni nor the photographer has given consent for the use of the photo,' said lawyer Gesche Le Fur at the hearing before a court in Saint-Denis, capital of the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion.

Mr Le Fur argued that the photo was taken for an anti-Aids campaign and that the first lady 'did not want this goal to be hijacked' and used for commercial purposes, without her authorisation.

The picture, taken by Swiss-born fashion photographer Michel Comte, fetched US$91,000 (S$134,000) at a New York auction in April.

The bags show the naked first lady with a talk bubble that reads: 'My boyfriend should have bought me Pardon'. The item went on sale for three euros this month on Reunion and was expected to be available throughout France this week.

But Pardon boss Peter Mertes told the court that the 10,000 bags had been pulled off the shelves. 'We plan to burn them all, it's already planned,' he said.

Mr Mertes' lawyer argued that the sum sought by Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy was excessive.

The court in Saint-Denis is expected to render a decision on Thursday.

The case comes two weeks after a Paris appeals court ordered that a Sarkozy voodoo doll be sold with a label describing it as offensive to the president, but refused to ban the novelty.

Mr Sarkozy and his 40-year-old wife, a supermodel-turned-singer, in February won a lawsuit filed against Irish budget airline Ryanair for featuring a photo of the couple in an ad campaign.

Ryanair was ordered to pay Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy 60,000 euros in damages, well short of the 500,000 euros that she was seeking for use of her image without her consent.

Mr Sarkozy was awarded a symbolic sum of one euro in damages, as he had requested.

Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy donated the money from the damages to the French food bank Restos du Coeur. -- AFP