Unwed Bruni to stay at home

French and Indian diplomats who have been agonising over whether President Nicolas Sarkozy and his girlfriend Carla Bruni should be given a double room during their upcoming trip to India – where unmarried couples are a rarity – can finally relax. Bruni has told the French newspaper Liberation that she is not going to accompany the president on his trip to Delhi this week, where he will be a guest of honour at the Independence Day celebrations on Saturday. She said that as long as she was unmarried, "I cannot take part in an official trip with the president".

In making her announcement, she confirmed that she and Sarkozy had not married in a private ceremony at the Elysee Palace. The rumours were "a hurricane of madness", she said. But she did say that marriage was is "in our plans". Bruni, who turned to folk singing after finishing her career as a model, said it suited her to remain in Paris because she has a new album to record.

She should also be at home for the launch of a new television advert for the Lancia Musa car, due to 'premiere' in the coming days, in which a long black limousine bursts into flames when the glamorous Bruni points a make-believe gun at it, and sings "Bang, bang". It's all a long way from the days of Mesdames Mitterand, Chirac and other long-suffering French first wives.