U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday he will travel to France in June to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings of allied forces in Nazi-occupied Europe.

Obama said he had accepted an invitation to make the visit from French President Francois Hollande, after the two men met at the White House.

Actress Scarlett Johansson is to be awarded an honorary French Oscar -- just weeks after she denounced residents of her new home Paris as "terribly rude".

The American star, who is engaged to French journalist Romain Dauriac, will receive her "Cesar" at French cinema's annual gala awards ceremony in the capital on February 28.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Tuesday called on the international forces deployed in the restive Central African Republic to put an end to brutal attacks by the country's militias, "by force if needed".

"All militias, who continue to be involved in mob violence and commit murder, must stop," Le Drian said during a visit to Brazzaville in neighboring Congo.

Israel's foreign minister said Tuesday that Iran's claim to have tested two new missiles proved it was still a "warmongering" state despite its recent diplomatic overtures to the West.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's remarks came on the eve of an official visit to France, which is taking part in talks on Iran's controversial nuclear program set to resume next week in Vienna.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday praised France as a model ally in a world that must do more to meet common threats, laying on the full flourish of a state visit for President Francois Hollande.

Obama hailed France, an increasingly key partner in the fight against Islamic extremism in Africa, nuclear proliferation and climate change, as he welcomed Hollande on the White House lawn.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon spoke Monday with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on increasing the number of European and African troops in the Central African Republic, the U.N. said.

Ban "asked what could be done to increase support to MISCA, to accelerate the deployment of the European Union troops, and whether additional troops might be envisaged," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

A leading Islamist militant group has kidnappped a team of Red Cross workers in northern Mali who had been reported missing, an official from the jihadist group said on Tuesday.

The members of the International Committee of the Red Cross team "are alive and in good health" in the hands of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, a MUJAO official told Agence France Presse in a telephone call.

Seven people were found dead Monday after a fishing boat carrying illegal migrants capsized in the Indian Ocean off the French overseas territory of Mayotte, the local prefect's office said.

Coast guard officers were able to rescue 15 passengers on the boat after it foundered on a coral reef.

France on Monday ruled out Western military action against Islamist fighters in southern Libya for the time being, rebuffing an appeal for intervention from neighboring Niger.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, asked about Niger's call for action, said there was no question of putting foreign troops into a region that the United States has identified as an increasingly worrisome new haven for al-Qaida-linked militants.

France said Monday it will propose a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding the immediate opening of humanitarian corridors to besieged Syrian cities.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the resolution represented an attempt to accelerate moves aimed at delivering urgently-needed medical and food supplies.