France expressed regret Thursday that Turkey had withdrawn its ambassador to Paris, and called on its NATO ally not to overreact to a law to punish the denial of the Armenian genocide.

"First of all, I hope that our Turkish friends do not overreact to this decision by the French National Assembly," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told reporters in Bordeaux, the southwestern city where he is mayor.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a raft of political and military sanctions on Thursday after French lawmakers approved a bill making it a crime to deny Armenian genocide.

Turkey will recall its ambassador from Paris and suspend mutual political visits as well as joint military projects, including joint exercises, Erdogan said.

Turkey has recalled its ambassador from Paris in protest at a decision by the French parliament to back a law banning denial of the Armenian genocide, a spokesman for the embassy said Thursday.

Tahsin Burcuoglu will leave France on Friday, while further measures in response to the vote will be announced in Turkey by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, spokesman Engin Solakoglu told AFP.

Israel has lashed out at Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas for meeting a former woman prisoner who lured an Israeli teen to his death, accusing him of "putting murderers on a pedestal."

Palestinian Amna Muna was sentenced to life behind bars for seducing a teenage boy through an Internet chatroom who was later shot dead by militants in 2001, but was freed in October under terms of a prisoner swap deal.

France defied a threat of sanctions from Turkey, a key NATO ally and one of Europe's fastest growing economies, on Thursday, when lawmakers voted to ban the denial of the Armenian genocide.

Turkey had threatened diplomatic and trade sanctions if the bill passed, accusing President Nicolas Sarkozy's right-wing UMP party of pandering to France's large Armenian community ahead of elections next year.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed on Wednesday the need for the whole of Lebanon to come under the control of the state and army.

He said: “No one in Lebanon can eliminate the other and we are all Lebanese and bound to work together.”

The Armenian genocide is a "fact of history" and a proposed French law making it illegal to deny this has nothing to do with upcoming elections, France's minister for Europe said on Wednesday.

"Today all peoples must be lucid and courageous in looking at their history. It has been nearly 100 years since the Armenian genocide took place, those responsible are dead, it is simply a matter of recognizing a fact of history," European Affairs Minister Jean Leonetti told Radio Classique.

The Turkish government will impose a raft of diplomatic and trade sanctions against Paris if French lawmakers adopt an Armenian genocide bill this week, a government source said on Tuesday.

"Turkey will not remain silent. That will obviously have consequences," the source told Agence France Presse.

Police have detained 13 people during a series of raids in southeastern Turkey over their suspected ties to the al-Qaida network, Anatolia news agency reported on Monday.

Police arrested the suspects during simultaneous raids at 15 different addresses in southeastern Anatolian province of Gaziantep, Anatolia said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appealed Friday to French President Nicolas Sarkozy to block the approval of an Armenian genocide bill and warned of "serious consequences" if it passes.

"This bill directly targets the Turkish Republic, the Turkish nation and the Turkish community living in France and it is hostile," Erdogan said in a letter sent to Sarkozy, according to the Anatolia news agency.