Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged France to stand firm in international negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.

"We hope France will not yield," Netanyahu said in an interview to Le Figaro newspaper due out on Saturday, on the eve of French President Francois Hollande's visit to Israel.

Four men aged between 22 and 35 have been arrested in the Paris region for allegedly belonging to a jihadist network sending fighters to Syria, informed sources said Friday.

The arrests by investigators from France's intelligence agency DCRI took place on Tuesday and the presumed leader of the network is a 24-year-old man, according to sources close to the case.

Boko Haram is holding a French priest who was kidnapped in northern Cameroon, a source in the banned Nigerian Islamist group said on Friday, rejecting claims of a rift among the insurgents.

"I can confirm that the French priest is in the hands of mujahideen (fighters) from Jamaat Ahl al-Sunna Li Da'wat al-Jihad, who carried out the operation that was coordinated with Ansaru," he told Agence France Presse.

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls announced on Friday that Paris would create a "regional homeland security envoy" role in Dakar to boost the fight against terrorism in Africa's Sahel region.

The spotlight has been thrown on the growing threat of Islamist extremism across the vast hinterland stretching from Senegal in the west to Somalia in the east since France launched a military operation against al-Qaida-linked militants in Mali.

Patriarch of Antioch and All the East Youhanna X Yazigi called on Friday for the formation of a government in which all the rival parties are represented and stopping the emigration of Christians.

In remarks ahead of a trip to France and Germany, Yazigi stressed “the importance of forming an all-embracing cabinet so that we hold the presidential elections away from vacuum.”

Ministers from countries across the Sahel and Maghreb agreed Thursday to create a border security training center in a bid to confront Islamist-linked violence plaguing the huge desert region.

Delegates hailed the proposal in the "Rabat Declaration" adopted by 19 countries at a conference in Morocco's capital as an important step towards curbing jihadist unrest in the Sahara, notably in Mali and Libya.

A French priest was kidnapped overnight near Cameroon's border with Nigeria in an area designated as dangerous for foreigners, French authorities said on Thursday.

Georges Vandenbeusch was abducted near the town of Koza, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Nigeria, the French foreign ministry said in a statement.

French forces have "neutralized" several al-Qaida members in Mali's troubled north, where the group claimed responsibility for the execution of two French journalists, the chief of defense staff in Paris said Thursday.

The special operation overnight in the desert also led to the seizure of weapons, Admiral Edouard Guillaud said on Europe 1 radio. He did not specify if the al-Qaida members had been killed or captured.

Five Palestinian children suffered from smoke inhalation when suspected Jewish extremists set fire to their West Bank home on Thursday in an apparent revenge attack, the family said.

The attackers torched the front of the Dar Khalil home in Sinjil, a village northeast of Ramallah, and spray-painted the words "Regards from Eden, Revenge!" in Hebrew in blue on a wall outside the house.

President Barack Obama's top national security aide said Wednesday that France was "fully on board" with a proposed interim deal on freezing Iran's nuclear program, ahead of a new round of talks in Geneva.

National Security Adviser Susan Rice made the comment after Obama spoke to French President Francois Hollande by phone and both men urged Iran to accept a deal presented by world powers.