Sarkozy reveals US holiday hosts

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy has revealed he was the guest of two wealthy families at a villa in the US where he has just spent a holiday.

The 44,000-euro (£29,800) rent on the luxury villa, near Boston, was paid by the Cromback and Agostinelli families, Mr Sarkozy told French paper Le Monde.

Mr Sarkozy has been under pressure from the French media to reveal the financial details of his US holiday.

The house belongs to Mike Appe, a former Microsoft executive.

"The villa has been rented for us by our friends, the Crombacks and Agostinellis, who invited us to spend our holidays with our children," Le Monde quoted Mr Sarkozy as saying.

Agnes Cromback is president of the jewellers Tiffany-France.

Roberto Agostinelli is a banker who worked for a time at Lazard. His wife Marthe is in charge of communications at Prada-France, the fashion designers, Le Monde said.

Despite the controversy over the funding of his stay Mr Sarkozy's two week holiday in the US is seen as having done much to improve US-French relations, the BBC's Alasdair Sandford, in Paris, says.

But the overt friendliness between President Bush and the French president caused some consternation in France, our correspondent adds.

One opinion poll suggested more French people would rather relations with the US remain the same than become closer.