Nicolas Sarkozy gets love trainer

Carla Bruni has recruited a female personal trainer to help her husband, President Nicolas Sarkozy, get fit, lose weight and improve his libido. To be precise, to improve the power of his perineum, the pelvic muscles that, when working well, can improve the duration of love-making, but when not can result in premature ejaculation.

Bruni met 26-year old Julie Imperiali at the health spa in the Ritz in Paris, and now she has become a regular fixture at the Elysee Palace, putting Sarkozy, whose nickname is 'Speedy', through a series of exercises to bolster the strength of, in her own words, "down there".

"Sexual relations are better if the male perineum is in good shape," Imperiali, a former dancer and gymnast, told the Times. "The problems of premature ejaculation are often due to the perineum. The Anglo-Saxons are a bit prudish about this and say that they don't know what we are talking about."

She adds: "It was taboo for a long time. It was something for pregnant women. But the perineum is the floor of our body and if it's not kept in shape it is as if you had a house with no floor. You can become incontinent, your organs descend and you have bad posture. By becoming conscious of your perineum you become aware of the interior of your body."

In the past ten months Imperiali's so-called Tectonic method has resulted in Sarkozy losing four kilos and dropping two trouser sizes. Imperiali charges £100 to £150 an hour, and clients include Karen Mulder, a Dutch former supermodel, other "members of the government", and Qatari and Saudi princesses.

Is Julie Imperiali the Sarkozys’ version of Carole Caplin, the health guru Cherie Blair brought into Downing Street who ended up giving her husband Tony "long massages"? Imperiali should remember that Caplin was eventually banished from Number 10 for her embarrassing indiscretions. ·