Carla Bruni glad to be French after Berlusconi quip

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (L) welcomes Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall as she arrives at the Elysee Palace in Paris November 10, 2008.

PARIS (Reuters) - French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy says she is glad not to be Italian any more after hearing Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi joke about U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's "suntan."

Italian-born Bruni-Sarkozy, a top model turned pop singer who wed French President Nicolas Sarkozy in February after a whirlwind romance, became a French national and lost her Italian citizenship after her marriage.

In an interview with French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche published on Sunday, she criticized Berlusconi for saying on Thursday that Obama, who will be the first black U.S. president, was "handsome, young and also suntanned."

"When I hear Silvio Berlusconi making light of the event (Obama's election) and joking about the fact that Obama is 'always tanned', it feels strange to me," Bruni-Sarkozy was quoted as saying.

"Some people will no doubt put it down to humor, but often I find that I am pleased to have become French," she said.

Italy's left-wing opposition parties accused Berlusconi of bringing discredit on the nation with the quip. He responded by calling them "imbeciles" with no sense of humor.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon, editing by Tim Pearce)