Profile: Nicolas Sarkozy

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has earned himself the nickname of the "hyper-president", a leader who never stops.

President Sarkozy says he has a duty to bring about change

Since his election in May 2007 Mr Sarkozy has battled to push through reforms at home, energetically represented France abroad, and - in a private life that has enthralled the media - divorced and remarried.

The French president casts himself as a moderniser, championing a clean break with the country's traditional ruling elite.

He has pledged to revive the work ethic, promote new initiatives and fight intolerance, including racism.

He also enjoys a powerful mandate, after a huge turnout in the election which saw him triumph over Socialist candidate Segolene Royal.

But opinion polls suggest that his early popularity has taken a hit as the French economy has slowed.

A perception that the government is not doing enough to secure the jobs of ordinary workers has fuelled a series of recent protests including strikes and "boss-nappings", in which workers threatened with redundancy take their employers hostage.

Despite the protests, Mr Sarkozy has said he will press ahead with his reform programme, which includes cutting taxes and slimming down the public sector.

Immigration focus

Soon after the beginning of his presidency, it was Mr Sarkozy's private life that preoccupied the French media.

After weeks of intense speculation he married former model-turned-singer Carla Bruni in February 2008. The publicity surrounding the romance between Mr Sarkozy, 54, and Ms Bruni, 41, was a departure from the French tradition of keeping presidential private lives private.

As well as the "hyper-president" Mr Sarkozy also became known in the French press as the "bling-bling president", due to his taste for Rolex watches and holidays on luxury yachts.

Mr Sarkozy is a gift to cartoonists

Mr Sarkozy has three sons from two previous marriages. He divorced former model and public relations executive Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz in October 2007.

It was as a highly combative interior minister and leader of the ruling UMP that Mr Sarkozy made his name in national politics.

He sharply divided opinion in France - not least by adopting a tough stance on immigration.

He famously described young delinquents in the Paris suburbs as racaille, or "rabble".

That blunt comment - made before the 2005 riots - encouraged some critics to put him in the same category as far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Mr Sarkozy pushed through measures to curb illegal immigration - including deportations - and to integrate skilled migrants into French society.

But he has also advocated positive discrimination to help reduce youth unemployment - a challenge to those wedded to the French idea of equality. His call for state help for Muslims to build mosques was also controversial.

Unlike most of the French ruling class, Mr Sarkozy did not go to the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, but trained as a lawyer.

The son of a Hungarian immigrant and a French mother of Greek Jewish origin, he was baptised a Roman Catholic and grew up in Paris.

He has called for "a rupture with a certain style of politics", saying he wants to encourage social mobility, better schools and cuts in public sector staff.

One of his main political influences is not French but British, according to one of his biographers, Nicolas Domenach.

"He admires Tony Blair hugely - for many reasons," he says.

"Tony Blair was able to seduce the media, in the way Sarkozy does. And Sarkozy looks at how Tony Blair was able to sell his political ideology."

Rise through the ranks

Before serving as interior minister and finance minister under President Jacques Chirac, Mr Sarkozy served as mayor of the affluent Paris suburb of Neuilly from 1983 to 2002.

"He's hyperactive, he's ambitious, he's a heavy worker, a workaholic, he never rests," says Anita Hausser, who wrote a biography of Mr Sarkozy and is political editor at the French broadcaster LCI.

President Chirac famously fell out with Mr Sarkozy

Ms Hausser says his appeal is simple.

"He was a lawyer, so he seems close to the people, and he wants to show them that he understands their problems and that he will solve their problems."

Initially a protege of President Chirac, the two fell out dramatically when Mr Sarkozy backed a Chirac rival for the presidency in 1995 - a slight that has never been forgotten.

Even those on the left in France admit Mr Sarkozy is a formidable political force.

He has shown strong protectionist instincts - pouring state funds into saving the ailing French company Alstom.

As the economic downturn has deepened, Mr Sarkozy has struck a controversially protectionist note in suggesting that French carmakers should put French jobs first.

He has also been vociferous in demanding tougher regulations for hedge funds and tax havens.

On the international stage is often described as an Atlanticist, though he was also against the war in Iraq. He is not too keen on the old Franco-German alliance - but upset new EU members by saying those with lower taxes than old Europe should not receive EU subsidies.

He has voiced opposition to Turkey's bid to join the EU.

As president, he put France in the spotlight with his efforts to help end the August 2008 conflict between Russia and Georgia, as well as his assertive performance while holding the six-month EU rotating presidency.