In a surprise ceremony at the presidential residence, President Vicente Fox married his spokeswoman, Martha Sahagun, today.

Mexican President Vicente Fox kisses his bride Martha Sahagun during a private wedding ceremony Los Pinos, the presidential residence in Mexico City.

The two were married at Los Pinos at 7:30 a.m. local time, presidential spokesman Victor Suberza said. Videotapes released by the president's office showed the smiling couple signing a wedding register and kissing; the bride wore a white fitted suit.

The marriage, ending months of speculation about Fox's relationship with Sahagun, occurred less than two hours before Fox met Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar for an official welcoming ceremony at the National Palace in the center of Mexico City.

"Congratulations for the first year of democratic change, for your birthday, and they coincide with the fact that the president of the republic has gotten married this morning," Aznar said as Fox smiled. "Triple congratulations."

There were no immediate details about plans for a honeymoon. Presidential sources said Sahagun would step down as chief presidential spokeswoman, and would be replaced by Francisco Ortiz, who is Fox's public opinion and image coordinator.

Sahagun had worked in Fox's administration when he was governor of Guanajuato, and rumors that the two were personally close arose during Fox's successful 2000 presidential campaign, in which Sahagun headed his press team.

With that election, Fox ended 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Both Fox, 59, and Sahagun, 49, are divorced and Roman Catholic.

Within days of the July 2, 2000, election victory, the Mexico City newspaper El Economista cited "sources close to both of them" as saying that Fox had told his children he planned to marry Sahagun before his Dec. 1 inauguration.

But Fox's daughter Ana Cristina, who had been serving as first lady, denied the report and hinted at a dislike of Sahagun: "Mrs. Martha works with my father," she said at the time. "We aren't friends and that's it."

The rumors prompted a magazine then published by the Catholic archdiocese of Mexico City, Nuevo Criterio, to urge Fox to reunite with his former wife, Lillian de la Concha, whom he divorced in 1991 after a 20-year marriage.

On Dec. 28, Mexico's version of April Fool's Day, the newspaper La Prensa ran a spoof story saying that Fox would marry Sahagun on Valentine's Day.

Sahagun ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Celaya, a central Mexican city in Fox's home state of Guanajuato. She obtained a certificate in teaching English in Dublin, Ireland.

Fox married his first wife in 1971, and the two adopted four children. In his autobiography, Fox wrote that the two gradually grew apart. But he added, "to the day, we maintain a good relationship because of what we most care about in the world: our children.

"Since I started my fight to reach the presidency I was constantly asked what I would do about the first lady, and they even invent romances for me.

"But I am completely immersed and devoted to my four children and my duties in politics; that consumes me 24 hours a day. I soundly reject it when they say a president needs to be married."

(Agencies)