Afraid that media would publish racy pictures of France's First Lady, Pope Benedict XVI had told President Sarkozy not to bring his wife for trip

Vatican shuts doors to Bruni

Afraid that media would publish racy pictures of France's First Lady, Pope Benedict XVI had told President Sarkozy not to bring his wife for trip

Growing concerns

Le Canard Enchaine, the satirical weekly, said the Pope was concerned that her presence would spark a rash of nude and scantily-clad photos from her modelling career being published in Italian newspapers.

"The Holy See want(ed) to avoid photos showing Carla and the Pope together on the front pages next to older but saucier photos (of Carla)," it wrote.

As a result, the 43-year-old First Lady stayed in Paris during her husband's visit.

Photos of the French first lady with little or nothing on dating from her catwalk model days have been a regular feature in the French and international press.

In one cover released in a Spanish magazine weeks before her February 2008 marriage to Sarkozy, she appears reclining on a black leather sofa wearing nothing but high-boots.

A black and white print of her baring all and covering her intimacy with her hands was auctioned off at Christie's days after her first state visit to Britain in March 2008.

Sarkozy was raised a Catholic but in breach of its teachings has divorced twice and his third wife has a child out of wedlock. During the trip he was seen making the sign of the cross.

Bruni-Sarkozy stayed behind in Paris for Sarkozy's first Vatican visit, in December 2007, as the pair were not yet married.

That time the President managed to shock Catholics for a different reason: He was seen shamelessly checking his Blackberry messages within yards of the Pontiff.

The Elysee Palace made no comments.

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