President Francois Hollande said Monday that sanctions on Iran will remain in place as long as France is not convinced that Tehran has "definitively renounced" its alleged nuclear weapons program.

"I confirm here that we will maintain the sanctions as long as we are not certain that Iran has definitively and irreversibly renounced its military program to obtain nuclear weapons," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday invited Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to address the Israeli parliament and publicly recognize Jewish links to the land of Israel.

"I call on him from here: let's break the deadlock. Come to the Israeli Knesset and I'll come to Ramallah," the Palestinian leader's West Bank headquarters.

A photographer was left fighting for his life Monday after being shot by an intruder at the Paris offices of left-wing French daily Liberation, police and the newspaper said.

The victim was shot in the chest and stomach with a pump-action shotgun and was in a critical condition, they said, adding that the shooter had fled the scene.

A French engineer abducted by Islamist militants in Nigeria and held for 11 months arrived back in France on Monday after managing to escape his kidnappers.

A plane carrying the "weakened" 63-year-old Francis Collomp, accompanied by France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, landed early Monday at a military airport outside Paris.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen vowed to use next year's local and European elections as a springboard to national office as she addressed party faithful in Paris on Sunday.

And as another poll showed President Francois Hollande's approval rating hitting record lows, Le Pen said the French leader had lost all credibility and urged him to hold early elections.

France expects Israel to make "gestures" over its construction of settlements on land the Palestinians want for a future state, President Francois Hollande said in Jerusalem on Sunday.

His remarks came just three days after the entire Palestinian negotiating team resigned in protest over continued Israeli settlement building which is threatening to sabotage the U.S.-backed direct peace talks which began in late July.

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said on Sunday his government would begin training and equipping Malian police to support their fight against terrorism in the country's rebel-infested desert north.

He made the announcement after meeting Mali's president and prime minister on a two-day visit as part of a wider regional tour focused on security, as France begins to wrap up a military operation in its former colony to oust al-Qaida-linked militants.

A French engineer taken hostage by Islamist militants in Nigeria, Francis Collomp, has been freed after nearly a year in captivity, President Francois Hollande said on Sunday.

In a statement, Hollande expressed thanks to Nigerian authorities for helping to secure the release of 63-year-old Collomp, but provided no other details of how he was freed.

France will never tolerate nuclear proliferation, President Francois Hollande vowed Sunday as he arrived in Israel for a visit dominated by the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.

Hollande also made clear that the peace process was high on his agenda, saying France expected "gestures" from Israel over its construction of settlements in a bid to advance peace talks with the Palestinians.

French President Francois Hollande is set for a red carpet welcome when he visits Israel and the Palestinian Territories this weekend amid renewed efforts by the West to curb Iran's contested nuclear program.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is "impatient" to meet Hollande, who arrives on Sunday in the midst of negotiations to resolve the impasse over the nuclear issue.