It's a girl - Sarkozy has daughter with ex-supermodel wife Bruni

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is the father of a baby girl after his supermodel wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy gave birth on Wednesday at the La Muette clinic in Paris.

Reuters/Vincent Kessler

The birth is a first for France as no president in modern history, all of them men, has fathered a legitimate child while in office.

Sarkozy arrived at the clinic shortly before 11.00 pm, just over three hours after the birth. He had earlier in the day visited his 43-year-old wife in the Paris clinic for half-an-hour, but was forced to jet off to Germany for crisis talks on the eurozone sovereign debt crisis before the birth itself.

The president left Frankfurt just before the birth was announced, after talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel, IMF director Christine Lagarde and the current and next heads of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet and Mario Draghi.

Sarkozy's Elysee Palace office has said it will not make any official announcement on what it considers a private family matter, but the birth of a daughter was widely reported in French media outlets.

The girl is the French first couple's first baby since their marriage in 2008, although Bruni has one 10-year-old son from a previous relationship and thrice-married Sarkozy has three sona aged 14 to 26.

The unpopular centre-right Sarkozy, aged 56-year-old, is currently languishing in the opinion polls, far behind newly-crowned Socialist challenger Francois Hollande, and faces a tough battle for re-election in next April's first round vote.