French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday urged Iran to make "concrete gestures" on its nuclear program before his meeting with Tehran's new leader.

"France expects Iran to make concrete gestures to show that it renounces its military nuclear program, even if it has a right to a civilian program," Hollande told the U.N. General Assembly.

A French Muslim convert has been killed fighting the Syrian army in the northern province of Aleppo, a monitoring group said on Tuesday.

"Abu Mohammad al-Faransi, a Frenchman who converted to Islam, was killed while fighting against regime forces on Sunday in the south of Aleppo province," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Paris fashion week on Tuesday got off to a charmingly chaotic start with a rooftop catwalk show at which fashionistas played 'spot the model'.

Fashion watchers who trekked up the eight flights to the top of Paris's famed Galeries Lafayette department store were rewarded with clear views of the Eiffel Tower on a sunny September day.

An entry exam for one of France's top legal schools is to be rerun because some candidates were allowed to go to the toilet during the five-hour test.

Toulouse University confirmed Monday that one of the examinations for would-be entrants to its law school will have to be taken again by every candidate because a sympathetic supervisor allowed some desperate students to take a comfort break.

Syrian President Bashar Assad accused foreign nations of giving orders to "terrorists" battling his government's forces in an interview with China's state CCTV broadcast Monday.

He spoke as U.N. Security Council members negotiate a resolution on how to respond if Syria fails to fulfill an international deal to eliminate its chemical weapons arsenal.

Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem will head the country's delegation to the annual U.N. General Assembly, the pro-regime al-Watan newspaper said on Monday.

Muallem will address the United Nations on September 30, the newspaper said, adding that the delegation, including Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad, will leave soon for New York.

French police have seized 1.3 tons of pure cocaine found on board an Air France cargo plane, Interior Minister Manuel Valls announced Saturday.

The drugs, seized on September 11, had been packed into 30 suitcases, Valls told a news conference in Nanterre, outside Paris.

Israeli troops on Friday manhandled a group of European diplomats as they tried to hand out tents to Palestinian Bedouins whose West Bank homes were destroyed by the army.

The troops used force to disperse the diplomats who had accompanied aid workers to the village of Makhul in the Jordan Valley, an Agence France Presse photographer said.

French President Francois Hollande will meet his Iranian counterpart Hasan Rowhani on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly next week, Hollande's office announced Friday.

The announcement comes amid growing signs the recently-elected Rowhani could also meet with U.S. President Barack Obama in New York in what would be a landmark moment for Iran's relationship with the United States and the broader international community.

A group of 10 French imams will meet Pope Francis on Wednesday in the latest sign of rapprochement between the Vatican and the Muslim world.

The meeting has been organised by Marek Halter, a French Jewish author known for promoting religious tolerance who has organised similar initiatives in the past.