France's Sarkozy sees no problem in yacht holiday

VALLETTA, May 9 (Reuters) France's president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy defended today his decision to take a three-day post-election holiday on a luxury yacht, which was condemned by left-wing opposition as an ill-judged trip.

Greeting reporters after a jog on the Mediterranean island of Malta, Sarkozy said: ''I have no intention to hide. I have no intention to lie. I have no intention to apologise.

''I don't see the controversy,'' he said, sweating in bright sunshine and smiling broadly at reporters.

Sarkozy, who beat his Socialist rival Segolene Royal in France's presidential election on Sunday with a campaign to lift low wages and help hard-working families, has been cruising this week around the coast of Malta aboard the luxury yacht.

Wearing a dark blue NYPD shirt, he confirmed in comments to French reporters that he was the guest of French media mogul Vincent Bollore, who had been inviting him for 20 years.

At home, politicians from the Socialist opposition said his stay on the yacht showed Sarkozy was out of touch with the problems of normal people. During his campaign, critics attacked Sarkozy's close ties to media and business barons.

LCI television said the vessel cost 200,000 euros (1,300) a week to hire and Jean-Louis Bourlanges, a European deputy of the centrist UDF party, attacked the stay as a ''needlessly ostentatious luxury''.

Sarkozy is expected to leave Malta for France on Wednesday night.

REUTERS SKB PM1820