Paris ? Newly divorced President Nicolas Sarkozy curtly told reporters Friday that his private life was not a public matter, while his ex-wife was quoted as saying she felt out of place in the limelight.

A day after their divorce was announced, Sarkozy was still wearing his wedding ring at a European Union summit in Lisbon, Portugal. And he bristled at a question about the divorce.

“I was elected by the French to find solutions to their problems, not to comment on my private life,” he said at a news conference. The French perhaps have “more modesty and more discretion, dare I say a touch more of elegance,” Sarkozy said, scolding the reporter.

Sarkozy has at least two foreign trips scheduled in coming weeks: a state visit to Morocco, and a Nov. 6 visit to Washington for his first official meeting with President Bush.