Berlin, May 17 (AFP) The wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is expecting a child, the president's father told today's edition of the German Bild newspaper.

"I'm glad to be having a grandchild," Pal Sarkozy, 82, told Europe's most widely-read newspaper.

Neither the president nor his wife "want to know the sex (of) the child, but I'm sure it's a girl who'll be as beautiful as Carla," he added.

A cryptic television interview by France's 43-year-old first lady yesteray had fuelled speculation she was pregnant.

Journalists had widely expected Bruni to announce she was pregnant when she scheduled a live interview on the top lunch time news show of private channel TF1, but she tantalisingly avoided confirming it openly.

Instead of asking the million-dollar question, presenter Jean-Pierre Pernaut quizzed Bruni for several minutes on her charity work against child illiteracy, before dispatching the pregnancy issue in a matter of seconds.