Paris, Sept 04: The new album by French first lady Carla Bruni has sold around 80,000 copies in France, her record company said Thursday, after last month claiming it had sold more than twice that number.

Comme si de rien n`etait" (Simply), the former supermodel`s third release, hit the shelves here on July 11 and a month later her record company Naive said it had sold 165,000 in France and more than 150,000 abroad.

But on Thursday the company confirmed a press report that the impressive figures were in reality the number of copies that had been sent to music retail outlets and not the number sold.

"It`s not unusual that the sales figures represent half of numbers of copies in shops," Naive boss Patrick Zelnik said. "What counts for me is that we put 100,000 in place (in shops) when it came out and now we`re at 176,000."

Bruni`s first album wowed critics and the public in 2002, selling two million copies, but her second, which put the words of English poets to music, did less well, with a total of 380,000 copies sold.

Her latest album features 14 songs including a love song that draws a tongue-in-cheek parallel with drug addiction.

Bruni, who married President Nicolas Sarkozy in February after a whirlwind three-month romance, has said she plans to donate her share of the album`s profits to charity. There are no plans for the first lady to go on tour.

Bureau Report