Government officials have confirmed that Sarkozy had "several small sums of money" siphoned out of his online bank account after thieves obtained his personal log-in details and access codes.

An inquiry was launched after the president noticed the missing cash and reported the matter to the police, says the Journal Du Dimacnhe which broke the story.

Luc Chatel, secretary of state for consumer affairs told French radio that the national crime agency has reported a nine per cent increase in Internet banking security breaches in the past year.

"[This] proves the system of Internet checking is not infallible," Chatel said. "These cases are sufficiently rare that we haven't had to really organise ourselves, but [are] sufficiently serious for us to reflect on how to improve the system."