London, Feb 11 : French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is preparing to make her first trip to Africa as a goodwill ambassador for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS.

The model turned singer will travel to Burkina Faso to visit a hospital in the capital Ouagadougou and meet mothers and their children infected by HIV, reports Sky News.

While in the West African state, the beauty is due to meet health officials and charity workers and visit a centre that provides HIV-testing.

Geneva  - Carla Bruni-Sarkozy will visit AIDS programmes in Burkina Faso on Wednesday, during her first trip as Global Ambassador for the protection of mothers and children against AIDS.

She received the position from the Global Fund last December, on World AIDS Day.

Nicolas Demey, a spokesman for the organization, said it was financing almost 45 million dollars worth of projects in the African nation, where 130,000 people are living with HIV or AIDS.

The fund is a mechanism for raising money to fight HIV, tuberculosis and malaria and has close ties to the United Nations.

Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni became stars of France's comic book scene last year.

The cover of the recently published book, Carla and Carlito, depicts the French first lady carrying an image of Sarkozy in a baby sling.

It has sold 100,000 copies and demand continues, the newspaper Le Parisien reported in late December. The book depicts Bruni as the real power in the Elysee Palace and reveals that her control over him is so strong that the staff refer to him as Carlito or little Carla.

London, December 31: A French village called Carlat wants to twin itself with an Italian one called Bruni in honour of Carla Bruni, the First Lady of France.

Carlat is a picturesque settlement in the Auvergne region in the south of France, with a population of around 150.

It wants to celebrate Carla's success in improving popularity ratings of her husband, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, with constant appearances in the international

media.

London, Dec 24: While on an official trip to Brazil with hubby Nicolas Sarkozy, France's first lady Carla Bruni announced that she is ''no longer a man-eater''.

Speaking on her 41st birthday, Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy said that she's happy with her married life and has given up her man-eating ways of old following a string of boyfriends from Sir Mick Jagger to Donald Trump, reports the Telegraph.

"I can no longer seduce because I love my husband," she told the Brazilian edition of Marie-Claire magazine.

"I don't want to hurt him. I am no longer a man-eater," she said.

The ex-model and singer added: "We are newly weds. We don't say much, we kiss."