Dare-to-bare French minister shrugs off haughty couture label

Search the internet for images of French Justice Minister Rachida Dati and the results are more in keeping with an haute couture model than her nation's top judicial official and a rising political star.

Ms Dati, 42, has featured in many glossy magazines since the Sarkozy government was elected last year. She famously appeared on the cover of February's Paris Match in a glamour pose dressed in a little Dior dress and fishnet stockings.

But overexposure to Ms Dati's fashion sense has already sparked a backlash, coupled as it is with the bling-bling presidency of President Nicolas Sarkozy.

It was Ms Dati who managed to upstage Carla Bruni, the glamorous and controversial new first lady, at a reception last week for visiting Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Bruni was supposed to have been the focus at her first official dinner at the Elysee Palace, but it was Ms Dati, in a revealing satin gown split to mid-thigh, that drew gasps.

A poll on Ms Dati's image conducted by internet news site 20minutes.fr found supporters of either sex were rare. One respondent scoffed at her 'strutting about', while another asserted: 'Singers, celebrities, I can understand that they always need to sell themselves to the public ... but a political figure, that leaves me stunned.'