The French president is so interested in stamp-collecting that he sponsors fellow collectors in a new club set up at the Elysee Palace, where he lives in France.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is reported to be helping President Sarkozy with his hobby and has made the gift of a blue leather album with the governor's seal on the cover as well as two framed first-day-issue envelopes with Californian stamps.
A representative from the Elysee Philatelist Club was quoted in the Daily Telegraph newspaper as saying: "Mr Sarkozy's collection is slowly growing into one of the most impressive in the world because of all the international leaders he is in regular contact with."
President Sarkozy is very proud of a British set issued in 2004 to celebrate the Entente Cordiale, which was given to him by Queen Elizabeth II when he visted Windsor Castle last year.
