Sarkozy visits Carla at maternity clinic for birth

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday briefly visited the Paris maternity clinic where his supermodel-turned-singer wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is due to give birth to the couple's first child. The French leader left the ward around 30 minutes later before setting off for Frankfurt for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the eurozone debt crisis, and it was not clear when the birth was expected. Some media reports had suggested the 43-year-old first lady was to give birth later in the day. Sarkozy's Elysee Palace office has said it will not speak publicly about the pregnancy, which 56-year-old Sarkozy and his wife regard as a private matter, but the daily Le Figaro and BFM television said it was imminent. Large crowds of reporters and onlookers were gathered behind a security cordon outside the La Muette clinic. This would be the first time in modern French history that a sitting president has become a father, although Carla has a 10-year-old son from a previous relationship and Sarkozy has three, aged between 14 and 26. La Muette's director has said Bruni-Sarkozy will receive the same treatment as all the other mothers at the exclusive private clinic, but the location has been under discreet police surveillance for several days. Sarkozy faces a high pressure week, preparing for a crunch European Union summit this weekend at which he wants to announce agreement on a broad final plan to rescue the eurozone from the sovereign debt crisis. Lawmakers from the president's centre-right majority said the president wanted to head to Germany to thrash out the details with a reluctant Angela Merkel, and it was not clear if this would clash with the birth. Last month, Bruni told Madame Figaro, a glossy magazine produced by the reliably pro-government Le Figaro, that the political and economic situation would have no bearing on arrangements for the birth. She laughed off talk that Sarkozy might get a bump in the polls -- seven months before he is due to seek re-election -- insisting a baby's arrival is "a happy carefree moment and that's how it's been since the dawn of time." "We're in a time of crisis, but if human reproduction was decided by thinking about whether you're going to have a perfect life, we wouldn't be here to talk about it, neither you nor I," the Italian-born heiress said. "What's more, I think that the survival instinct is also expressed by the desire to have a child." "Of course, I'll look after the baby, but I don't see that that should stop me working," she said, stressing that she receives a lot of help and does not have a difficult life. "As to the duties related to my husband's job -- and there are not so many -- I do them willingly," she said. Bruni dodged a question about whether Sarkozy would take part in next year's presidential campaign, which the journalist suggested might be "ferocious", saying: "Me, I don't campaign!" "I don't know if my husband will campaign! As to human beings' ferocity, I've know about that since nursery school."