Thousands marched through Paris on Sunday in a "Day of Anger" against embattled President Francois Hollande's policies, including his decision to legalize gay marriage.

The protest called by a motley group of some 50 small and mainly right-wing organizations however failed to attract bigger anti-Hollande movements.

President Barack Obama still "looks forward" to meeting next month with President Francois Hollande, the White House said Saturday after the French leader announced his split from partner Valerie Trierweiler.

Obama "looks forward to seeing President Hollande as planned" during his February 11 state visit, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden told Agence France Presse, without further comment.

French President Francois Hollande on Saturday told Agence France Presse he has split with his longstanding partner Valerie Trierweiler after his affair with an actress nearly 20 years his junior.

The announcement came after a day of rumors in the French media that Hollande would formally announce the rupture on Saturday, on the eve of a visit by Trierweiler to India for charity work.

The U.S. military's partnership with France in Africa is "indispensable" in the fight against extremist groups in the Sahel region, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Friday.

During a visit to Washington, Le Drian said "terrorist groups are circulating across the whole Sahara-Sahel area and terrorist acts could put our own security at risk."

French First Lady c will make her first public appearance since it emerged President Francois Hollande was cheating on her with an actress, with a trip to India next week for charity work.

Trierweiler was hospitalized for a week after news broke of Hollande's affair with 41-year-old French actress Julie Gayet, and has since been holed up in a presidential retreat outside Paris as her future remains unclear.

A French counter-terrorism offensive in northern Mali's Timbuktu region ended on Friday with 11 Islamist militants killed and a French soldier wounded, military sources inside the operation told Agence France Presse.

"The French military operation in the Timbuktu region is completed. Eleven terrorists were killed. A French soldier was wounded but his life is not in danger," said an official from France's Operation Serval military mission in its former colony.

France and Germany on Friday summoned the Ukrainian ambassador over Kiev's response to five days of pro-EU protests in which activists say five people have died in clashes with security forces.

"We want to show that we are serious with our criticism," German foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer told reporters, after the French government made the same move.

A small explosive device went off outside a French church in central Rome, causing only material damage in an incident France's embassy to the Vatican said could be linked to President Francois Hollande's visit Friday.

"A handmade bomb went off at 2:30 am (0130 GMT), damaging three parked cars and the windows of a nearby building," a police spokesman told Agence France Presse.

Central African Republic's new interim president Catherine Samba Panza was sworn in Thursday, tasked with ending horrific sectarian violence and tackling a massive humanitarian crisis.

The World Bank has pledged to raise $100 million (73 million euro) to help kickstart the paralyzed state, one of many daunting challenges facing the country's first female president.

French forces have carried out two night-time counter-terrorism operations in rebel-infested northern Mali, military sources in the west African nation said on Thursday.

A foreign military source in Bamako said troops targeted the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) and the Signatories in Blood, an armed unit founded by fugitive jihadist commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar.