Paris, Aug 24 (DPA) French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy expressed her support for an Iranian woman sentenced to be stoned to death, in an open letter published on the internet.

'My husband will plead for you, France will not give you up,' the former model wrote in her letter on the website La regle du jeu of French writer Bernard-Henri Levy.

'How can one be silent in the face of the sentence against you? Why spill your blood, why rob children of their mother? Only because you have lived and loved, because you are a woman, because you are Iranian? My whole me refuses to accept that,' she wrote.

Sarkozy followed numerous other celebrities and politicians, including former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, calling for clemency for Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

The verdict against the 43-year-old had prompted worldwide protests by numerous governments and human rights organisations, prompting Tehran to delay the execution.