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Sarkozy takes break from woes during high-profile UK trip

Most state visits are dry, boring affairs that generate little public interest. Fashion experts and gossip columnists stay away.

Not so when the cast of characters includes Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a glamorous Italian fashion model and pop singer who is now first lady of France, and Queen Elizabeth II, who will throw a lavish banquet at Windsor Castle after taking her guests on a carriage ride through the streets of Windsor.

Oh, and the president of France will be there, too. Nicolas Sarkozy, in trouble at home, desperately wants to leave the gossip behind and appear serious and presidential.

He is banking on the two-day summit that started in London yesterday as a first step toward reviving his sagging popularity at home.

The beleaguered president, derided by some as "President Bling Bling," will address Parliament, lay a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior and dine with political and business leaders.

Analysts believe that Sarkozy's visit to Britain as an official guest of the queen offers the president a chance to show the French public that he can command respect on the world stage as a statesman, not just as a jet-setter with beautiful clothes and a striking third wife.

"The president is attempting to re-presidentialize his image," said Dominique Moisi, a political analyst with the French Institute for International Relations in Paris.

He said that Sarkozy, whose center-right party has lost a string of important local elections, is under pressure to have a successful meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to bolster his standing as France prepares to take control of the rotating EU presidency this summer.

For the summit to help Sarkozy, the president and his wife must project an image that will make French citizens proud of their first couple, Moisi said.

"They have to behave in the proper manner that people expect from those who symbolize France," he said.

The agenda for Sarkozy's meetings with Brown today includes a number of weighty topics: expansion of France's military role in NATO and Afghanistan, a joint nuclear energy program, immigration and the credit crisis that has spread from the US to Europe.

The timing could help shift attention away from Sarkozy's personal saga.

His approval ratings have fallen as French voters have been turned off by his turbulent love life and his ostentatious taste for Ray-Ban shades and Rolex watches.

There will be pressure on Bruni-Sarkozy as well as she makes her first state visit as France's first lady under intense media scrutiny.

The British tabloid press has focused on her looks -- and her prior relationships with British rock icons Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton -- amid fevered speculation about what she would wear and how she would conduct herself when she meets the queen.
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