Syria warned on Monday against preconditions for peace talks in Switzerland next week, a day after an opposition leader said President Bashar Assad's departure was "inevitable."

"Any person who seeks preconditions or mistakes their dreams for reality is leading to the failure of the Geneva conference before it even starts," Syrian state media quoted a foreign ministry source as saying.

Army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji was in Paris on Monday for talks with top French military officials two weeks after President Michel Suleiman announced a Saudi pledge of $3 billion to buy military equipment from France.

Al-Joumhouria daily quoted military sources as saying that Qahwaji has taken with him to Paris a list of the army's needs.

Valerie Trierweiler, the girlfriend of French President Francois Hollande, was hospitalized after he was reported to be having an affair with an actress, officials told Agence France Presse on Sunday.

Aides to the "first girlfriend" said she had been admitted on Friday "for a rest and to undergo some tests," and was expected to leave hospital on Monday.

Ahmad Jarba, the leader of Syria's opposition National Coalition, said Sunday that the U.S.-led "Friends of Syria" grouping had agreed that President Bashar Assad and his family will have no role in the country's future.

Jarba did not announce whether or not the opposition would take part in peace talks with representatives of Assad's regime due to start next week in Switzerland.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri held talks Sunday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the French capital Paris, where the latter was holding preparatory meetings for the Geneva 2 Syria peace conference.

According to a statement issued by Hariri's office, the meeting was also attended by Russian Deputy FM Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian Foreign Ministry director of Mideast dept. Sergey Vershinin and the ex-PM's advisers Nader Hariri and George Shaaban.

U.S. top diplomat John Kerry headed Saturday for Paris to hold talks about the Syrian war, hoping to press the fractured opposition to participate in upcoming peace talks.

The Sunday meeting of the "Friends of Syria" grouping at the French foreign affairs ministry will include ministers from 11 countries that support the so-called Geneva 2 peace process as well as the president of Syria's main opposition National Coalition, Ahmed Jarba.

The high demand on some of the military equipment pledged by Saudi Arabia to the Lebanese army will result in a short delay in delivering them to the military institution, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Sunday.

A French source told the daily however that the Saudi grant will take effect “within a month.”

France is exerting efforts with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council in order to highlight to Lebanese leaderships the dangers of failing to hold the presidential elections, reported the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily on Sunday.

It revealed that a French diplomatic delegation is expected to visit Lebanon soon in order to discuss with Christian leaders the upcoming elections.

French police said a body was discovered Saturday near the site of a helicopter crash that is thought to have killed a Chinese tycoon and a French winemaker, whose remains were never found.

The body was found on the banks of the Dordogne river in southwest France, some 10 kilometers (six miles) from the spot where the helicopter crashed into the river in December carrying four people.

World leaders paid tribute Saturday to former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, calling him a patriot who made "brave decisions" to secure his country's future, but his foes derided him as a "criminal".

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed Sharon on Saturday as a "hero" to Israelis, who would leave behind a "legacy of pragmatism" in the Middle East.