The initial six-month mandate for French troops trying to quell deadly unrest in the Central African Republic is "likely" to be extended, France's defense minister said in an interview Thursday.

"It's likely," Jean-Yves Le Drian told French radio when asked if the mandate would be extended two months after the United Nations Security Council authorized French and African troops to intervene in the strife-torn country.

French prosecutors said Tuesday they had launched a criminal probe into the publication of a photo of actress Julie Gayet, whose affair with President Francois Hollande made global waves.

The preliminary probe into invasion of privacy -- an offence that can be punished with a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($61,000) -- follows a complaint made by the 41-year-old actress over the photo of her driving a car published by Closer magazine, prosecutor Robert Gelli said.

Iran urged foreign companies to return to its oil sector Tuesday as a major French business delegation visited Tehran in the hope Western sanctions may soon be lifted.

In a speech to the delegation, Deputy Oil Minister Ali Majedi said Iran's latest five-year plan, running from 2010-2015, calls for $230 billion (170 billion euros) of investment in its petroleum industry, of which $150 billion would go to upstream activities, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Sweden's foreign minister, the latest high-level Western diplomat to visit Tehran, said Tuesday that a comprehensive international nuclear agreement with Iran is possible within six months, media reported.

"If there is a good will on both sides a deal is possible within a very ambitious time scale of six months," Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said during a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Queen Elizabeth II will meet Pope Francis for the first time when she visits Rome in April as a guest of the Italian president, Buckingham Palace said on Tuesday.

The queen and her husband Prince Philip will have an audience with the pope after attending a lunch hosted by President Giorgio Napolitano during the one-day visit on April 3.

The trial in France of a former Rwandan army captain charged with complicity in the 1994 genocide was greeted in Rwanda as a belated but "good sign".

"It is history being made. We have always wondered why it has taken 20 years... it is late, but it is a good sign," Rwandan Justice Minister Johnston Busingye said of the trial of Pascal Simbikangwa, a former army captain who went on trial in Paris Tuesday.

A French trade delegation arrived in Tehran Monday to try to restore business ties with Iran, local media said, ahead of a possible comprehensive nuclear deal between the Islamic republic and world powers.

Some 107 representatives from the French employers' union Medef traveled to Iran, with official news agency IRNA saying it was the biggest "French and European economic and business delegation" to visit the country.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji returned on Monday from a visit to Saudi Arabia that tackled the kingdom's military grant to Lebanon.

He said of the recent developments in Lebanon: “The strange incidents are a passing phase that we will overcome.”

Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip will make a state visit to France to mark the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings, Buckingham Palace confirmed Monday.

The royal couple have heavily reduced their overseas travel and the trip in June will be the first time that the 87-year-old monarch has left Britain since visiting Australia in October 2011.

Gunmen on Monday kidnapped a European oil employee in Sanaa, hours after Yemen's capital was rocked by overnight explosions, in the second abduction of a Westerner in four days.

The renewed violence comes as the government struggles to end fighting between Shiite Huthis and powerful tribesmen in the north, and seeks to turn the Arab republic into a federation.