Former French trade minister Thomas Thevenoud, who lasted less than a fortnight in office before being sacked for tax irregularities, also failed to pay the rent on his Paris apartment, a newspaper said on Wednesday.

This "forgetfulness led to his being threatened with eviction" from his apartment on the upmarket Left Bank of Paris, reported newspaper Le Canard Enchaine.

France will host an international conference on Iraq on September 15 and President Francois Hollande will visit the beleaguered country on Friday, his office said.

A statement from the French presidency said Hollande would visit Iraq, which is grappling with an offensive by Islamic State jihadists, to prepare for next Monday's conference in Paris.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Tuesday urged the international community to take decisive action in Libya, which he said was becoming a "hub for terrorist groups".

Prime Minister Tammam Salam carried out contacts with the ambassadors of several countries and political and religious leaders to avert the deteriorating situation in Lebanon.

According to An Nahar newspaper published on Tuesday, Salam contacted the ambassadors of the countries “concerned” with the ongoing developments to urge them to pressure their local allies to prevent the situation from worsening.

France's Morocco-born education minister said on Monday she would take legal action after a false letter circulated on the Internet advising towns to offer a weekly Arabic language class.

The memo, complete with fake letterhead and signature, says an official from the education ministry will contact town halls shortly "to offer a voluntary hour per week to discover the Arabic language."

Far-right groups rallied Sunday against migrants in the northern French port of Calais days after refugees tried to storm their way onto a ferry to England.

Some protesters carried placards saying "Kick them out!" and others blamed migrants for the "crime, filth and economic disaster" they claim was affecting the town from which hundreds of refugees hope to make it across the English Channel.

The far-right National Front is at the "gates of power" in France, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Sunday in a stark assessment of the crisis embroiling the country's centre-left government.

Valls's warning follows weeks of turmoil for the ruling Socialists which culminated in an opinion poll Friday showing that FN leader Marine Le Pen would beat President Francois Hollande in presidential elections in 2017.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen would win the first round of presidential elections in 2017, beating Socialist incumbent Francois Hollande and any candidate from the right, an opinion poll said Friday.  

But the leader of the National Front, which has gained tremendous ground this year topping municipal and European elections, would be beaten in the second round by the candidate from the center-right UMP party, be it former president Nicolas Sarkozy, or ex prime ministers Francois Fillon or Alain Juppe, an Ifop poll for Le Figaro daily said.

Confidence in embattled French President Francois Hollande has plunged to a new all-time low of 13 percent, according to a new opinion poll published Thursday.

The survey, by TNS Sofres for center-right Figaro magazine, showed he had lost five percentage points of support in France in the last two months.

France's new trade minister Thomas Thevenoud was forced to resign Thursday because of "problems with his taxes," a government source confirmed, in a new blow to embattled President Francois Hollande.

The socialist deputy was only appointed less than a fortnight ago in a reshuffle after a revolt over austerity measures threw the French government into crisis.