LONDON - French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been asked by his friends to give up severe diet and exercise regime introduced to him by wife Carla Bruni.

The 54-year-old politician was rushed to hospital last weekend after he collapsed while jogging.

He was released from Val-de-Grace military hospital in Paris after being kept in overnight under cardiological observation.

While heat and overwork were blamed for the incident, Frederic Lefebvre, a spokesman for Sarkozy’s UMP party, has raised doubts by insisting that he had suffered a “cardiac incident”.

According to Sarlozy’s friends, he had fallen foul of a draconian diet introduced to him by wife Carla Bruni, which involved eating little and ruled out chocolate, cheese and pudding- in an attempt to make Mr Sarkozy as svelte and fit.

“The president is going to have to take more care, work a little less hard and eat a little bit more,” the Telegraph quoted Patrick Balkany, an MP and close friend of Sarkozy, as saying.

“He’s on a diet because he’s always a little bit too heavy … let’s say he doesn’t want to be overweight.

“At 54 you have to be reasonable,” he added.

The First Lady, who he married last year after a whirlwind romance, is attributed with overseeing a complete “metamorphosis” of her husband as part of his bid to run for a second term in 2012.

Carla had also introduced him to her personal trainer who has helped the President lose around 9lb and two trouser sizes.

Julie Imperiali, 26, who specialises in strengthening the pelvic floor, said earlier this year that she had helped the President get more in touch with his limits as before “he used just to run and run and run without being aware of his body”.

Meanwhile, doctors have advised him to rest, so he has postponed a planned visit to the Mont Saint Michel abbey in Normandy. (ANI)