Bush congratulates Sarkozy on new marriage

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush congratulates French President Nicolas Sarkozy on his marriage to supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni, the White House said on Tuesday.

Though Bush has yet to pick up the phone, "Certainly the president and Mrs. Bush wish the recently married couple very well and I'm sure the president will be either talking to him soon or sending a note," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

Bush hosted Sarkozy, France's most pro-U.S. leader in decades, on his first official visit to Washington in November, and the two are said to have forged a personal bond. Bush had notably frosty relations with Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac, a critic of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Sarkozy married Bruni at the Elysee Palace on Saturday, just three months after they started dating.

Their relationship has been splashed across the French media and Sarkozy's popularity ratings have plunged in recent weeks, with voters complaining the president was focusing too much on his love life and not enough on the country's problems.

Sarkozy, 53, separated from his second wife, Cecilia, in October following an 11-year marriage and just five months after winning power. His colleagues said he was deeply upset by the divorce.

However, friends say he started seeing 40-year-old Bruni the following month, and they were photographed visiting Paris Disneyland together in December.

(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick, editing by Vicki Allen)