The two holidayed together over the Christmas period and Mr Sarkozy's popularity ratings took a pounding with French voters complaining he was concentrating too much on his personal life and not enough on affairs of state. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Mr Lebel said he had performed the ceremony, which came less than three months after the couple met in the wake of Mr Sarkozy's divorce from his second wife, Cecilia.

'I married two voters of the 8th district who live at 55 rue du Faubourg Saint Honore',' Mr Lebel said, giving the address of the presidential palace.

Mr Sarkozy, 53 earlier this week, divorced Cecilia in October after 11 years of marriage, and six months after taking over the French presidency. Ms Bruni, aged 40, is a singer and former model who has a son from a former relationship.

The two holidayed together over the Christmas period and Mr Sarkozy's popularity ratings took a pounding with French voters complaining he was concentrating too much on his personal life and not enough on affairs of state.

Mr Lebel said it was the first time in the history of the French republic that a president had married while in office.

The radio station also quoted Ms Bernadette Chirac, wife of former French President Jacques Chirac, as saying getting married at the Elysee was 'a wonderful thing'. 'I want to express all my best wishes to this new household.

'She is very, very beautiful,' added Ms Bernadette Chirac. It was not immediately clear if she had been present.

Ms Bruni is a rich heiress of Italian origin who moved from a successful career as a supermodel in the 1990s to that of a ballad singer with a hit record.

The tall brunette has been romantically linked to a string of famous men including rock stars Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton as well as tycoon Donald Trump.

'I am a tamer (of men), a cat, an Italian,' she told Le Figaro magazine in February last year. 'Monogamy bores me terribly.' 'I am monogamous from time to time but I prefer polygamy and polyandry (its female equivalent).'

Ms Bruni reportedly met Mr Sarkozy at a Paris dinner party organised by advertising magnate Jacques Seguela in November, one month after his divorce.

Photographs of the pair at the Disneyland theme park outside Paris were splashed in newspapers and magazines a month later, confirming Bruni as Sarkozy's new 'queen of hearts'.

The president told a press conference last month that his relationship with Ms Bruni was serious and all but confirmed that he planned to marry her.

Mr Sarkozy has a 10-year-old son, Louis, from his marriage to Cecilia and two sons, Pierre, 22, and Jean, 21, from his first marriage to Marie-Dominique Culioli. -- AFP, REUTERS