Row Over Sarkozy's Borrowed Jet

Nicolas Sarkozy's luxury Christmas break on the banks of the Nile yesterday sparked fresh criticism over his 'bling-bling' lifestyle and links to businessmen after he borrowed a private jet from a billionaire French tycoon.

The French president yesterday toured Egypt's Valley of the Kings, viewing Pharoah burial sites with his new girlfriend, ex-supermodel Carla Bruni. Sarkozy appeared unperturbed by the editorials in Paris accusing him of using his private holiday as a celebrity photo shoot.

But the socialist party yesterday focused their attacks on Sarkozy's choice to travel from France to Egypt in a private jet loaned by Vincent Bolloré, an industrialist and media tycoon, who is one of France's richest men. The president was forced to cut short a post-election break earlier this year after outrage that he had been loaned Bolloré's luxury yacht.

The socialist MP Benoît Hamon yesterday warned of a conflict of interest. "When the president is the personal friend of men and women who own newspapers, TV stations, who he makes pay for his holidays, who can say for sure that there aren't paybacks?" Le Monde warned of the "unsavoury" loan of the private jet, saying Sarkozy was closer to the ostentatious former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi than Charles de Gaulle.

At the time of the last Bolloré holiday row Sarkozy denied a conflict of interest, saying Bolloré's business and media empire had no dealings with the French state.