Italian-born Carla says she is happy to be French

Paris: France's Italian-born first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy says she is happy to be French after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's comments on US president-elect Barack Obama's "tan".

"When I hear Silvio Berlusconi ... joke about the fact that Obama is 'always tanned', that makes me feel funny," she said in an interview published on Sunday in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

"We'll put it down to humour. But often, I am very happy that I have become French," said the model-turned-singer spouse of President Nicolas Sarkozy who announced in July that she had become a naturalised French citizen.