French newspapers warned Saturday that President Francois Hollande's alleged affair with an actress risked overshadowing his much-anticipated announcement of a new tack in efforts to kindle growth and create jobs.

Whilst largely defending the unmarried Hollande's right to a private life, national and regional dailies admitted the hundreds of journalists at his bi-annual press conference on Tuesday will only have one question in mind.

Charles De Gaulle was faithful to France's "Aunt Yvonne", while other French leaders were linked to multiple trysts, and now unassuming President Francois Hollande allegedly has a new girlfriend.

After De Gaulle's term as president, during which the mere mention of a courtesan was inconceivable, Georges Pompidou was blindsided in 1968 by rumors stemming from the "Markovic affair" -- this time involving the leader's spouse.

German President Joachim Gauck and his French counterpart Francois Hollande will commemorate the victims of World War I together on August 3 in eastern France, the German president's office said Friday.

"The president will travel to Vieil-Armand on August 3," a spokeswoman for Gauck said, referring to the former battlefield in the French region of Alsace.

French magazine Closer said Friday President Francois Hollande was having an affair with actress Julie Gayet, backing its claim with photographs after months of swirling rumors.

Closer's Friday edition carried a seven-page report on the 59-year-old president's alleged infidelity under the headline "Francois Hollande and Julie Gayet - the president's secret love.”

Western countries in addition to Russia and China are expected to exert more pressure on Lebanese parties to elect a new president on time and avoid a vacuum, Western diplomatic sources said.

The sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat published on Friday that the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China are among the countries pushing for parliament's election of the president starting March 25.

France's Socialist government on Thursday claimed a last-gasp victory in its battle to prevent a controversial stand-up comic from launching a nationwide tour with a show widely condemned as anti-Semitic.

Less than two hours before the comic, Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala, was due to take the stage in the western city of Nantes, France's highest administrative court, the Council of State, overturned a local judge's ruling that the show should be allowed to go ahead.

The leader of France's far right National Front, which is expected to score well in upcoming European polls, pledged Thursday to do all in her power to facilitate the collapse of the EU.

Marine Le Pen's National Front is just one of several anti-immigration and anti-EU parties gaining traction in Europe, where many have lost faith in the ability of the European Union to help resolve a devastating economic crisis.

French President Francois Hollande will meet Pope Francis this month, the Vatican said on Thursday, after failing to visit on four previous trips to Rome since being elected and with his popularity at a low ebb.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters that the meeting would take place on January 24.

France will cut its troops in Mali to 1,600 by the middle of next month from the current level of 2,500, President Francois Hollande said Wednesday.

Speaking at an airbase in Creil in northern France, Hollande said the "situation is well under control" in Mali, where the "key objectives of the mission have been accomplished."

German prosecutors have charged an 88-year-old former soldier over the Nazis' worst atrocity on French soil, the 1944 massacre in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, a court said Wednesday.

The suspect, who was not identified, is believed to have belonged to an armored division of the SS that attacked Oradour-sur-Glane and wiped out nearly all its inhabitants, an act of retribution ordered over the purported kidnapping of a commander.