Peace talks between Ukraine's leaders and Kremlin-backed rebels could take place Sunday or Monday in the Belarussian capital Minsk in the presence of Russian and OSCE envoys, French President Francois Hollande said.

These talks will "happen on Sunday or Monday," Hollande said after an EU summit on Thursday, referring to the peace talks that will take place between the rebels and the Ukrainian government delegates in Minsk.

A small Islamic militant group claimed responsibility Thursday for a bomb attack that slightly damaged the French Cultural Center in Gaza City last week without causing any casualties.

His new book has not even been released but Michel Houellebecq -- one of France's most provocative and widely translated writers -- is already attracting comment with his latest novel "Submission" in which he imagines a France in 2022 under Muslim rule.

To be published on January 7, "Soumission" is the sixth novel by the author of "The Map and the Territory", which won France's top literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, in 2010.

Some 400 Russian sailors are returning home, French shipbuilder DCNS said Wednesday, as Paris weighs whether to deliver the Mistral-class warship to Russia amid the Ukraine crisis.

With the Palestinians seeking to bring negotiations with Israel to a head, France has sought to insert itself as a moderating force that can break American dominance over the peace process.

"If there is a moment when France can do something, it's now," said Hasni Abidi, a Middle East expert based in Geneva.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Tony Blinken as deputy secretary of state on Tuesday, installing a seasoned insider who has served as a close advisor to President Barack Obama.

Blinken, the outgoing deputy national security advisor, was confirmed on a vote of 55-38, becoming Secretary of State John Kerry's number two.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Monday urged African nations to combine efforts to tackle the jihadist threat, from southern Libya to Nigeria.

"Cooperation must become the rule and no longer the exception," Le Drian said at the opening of the first International Forum on Peace and Security in Africa, in Senegal's capital Dakar.

French police on Monday dismantled a network sending jihadist fighters to Syria in a series of dawn raids that saw them nab 10 suspects across the country, said Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

Elite and anti-terror police units descended on around a dozen targets, mostly in the southern region of Toulouse, but also around Paris and in the northern region of Normandy.

Beaten, bound and fed mostly dry bread, on the darkest days of his three years held captive by Islamists in the Sahel Frenchman Serge Lazarevic felt he was no longer human.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected talk of Israel withdrawing from east Jerusalem and the West Bank within two years, on the eve of a meeting with the top U.S. diplomat.

"We... stand against the possibility of a diplomatic assault, that is an attempt to compel us by means of U.N. decisions to withdraw to the 1967 lines within two years," said Netanyahu.