CARLA BRUNI, THE wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, has reportedly given birth to a baby girl.

The baby was successfully delivered shortly before 8pm, according to radio station Europe 1. Bruni, 43, was admitted earlier today to the Muette medical clinic in Paris, where Sarkozy, 56, visited her before rushing out to keep an evening appointment in Frankfurt for meetings on the euro debt crisis.

There is speculation that the baby – Sarkozy’s fourth child and Bruni’s second – has been named Dalia. AGI News cites a French TV station as the source of the information.

According to Bloomberg, the birth is the first ever for a sitting French president – and the first for a French head of state since the birth of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte 155 years ago.

Bruni has said in recent media interviews that she didn’t know the baby’s gender and will make no photos of the baby public, praising a French law that bans the publication of images of children without parental consent.

The Elysee Palace has never officially acknowledged that a baby is on the way, and has indicated it won’t announce the birth. However, Sarkozy’s father, Pal, announced the pregnancy in May to German daily Bild and later told the newspaper the due date: October 3.

- Additional reporting from AP