French President Francois Hollande said on Thursday he would lead a mini-summit with African leaders in Mali to discuss forming a new peacekeeping mission to boost security in the troubled Central African Republic.

The meeting on the sidelines of the inauguration of Malian President Ibrahmim Boubacar Keita in Bamako will bring together the heads of state of Gabon, Chad and Cameroon, the main contributors to an existing 1,100-strong regional peacekeeping force known as MICOPAX.

Child beauty pageants may soon be banned in France, after a surprise vote in the French Senate that rattled the pageant industry and raised questions about how the French relate to girls' sexuality.

Such contests, and the made-up, dolled-up beauty queens they produce, have the power to both fascinate and repulse, and have drawn criticism in several countries. France, with its controlling traditions, appears to be out front in pushing an outright ban.

France's interior minister revealed Thursday that hundreds of homegrown Islamist militants were signing up to fight in Syria and warned they could pose a security threat when they come back.

More than 300 French nationals or residents are either currently fighting in Syria's civil war, planning to go and fight or have recently returned from there, the minister, Manuel Valls, told France Inter radio.

French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen said on Thursday that he planned to run in next year's elections to the European Parliament a month short of his 86th birthday.

The founder and honorary president of the Front National party now led by his daughter Marine Le Pen, explained his decision on Thursday by declaring: "There is no age limit for the fearless."

The five U.N. Security Council powers held new talks Wednesday on a resolution backing a Russia-U.S. plan to destroy Syria's chemical weapons, diplomats said.

Western nations, who say they are not looking for an immediate threat of force against President Bashar Assad, could seek a Security Council vote this weekend if agreement can be reached with Russia.

France is enlisting the help of Malians to police its aid projects in the west African country with an innovative crowdsourcing project asking people to report corruption by text or online.

The foreign ministry's project is the first of its kind in France, which has pledged 280 million euros ($374 million) in aid to Mali after it helped the west African country oust al-Qaida-linked groups that were occupying the vast north.

France on Wednesday rejected a claim by Russia that a UN report on the use of chemical weapons in Syria was biased.

"Nobody can question the objectivity of the people (inspectors) appointed by the UN," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told a press conference here, adding that he was "very surprised" by Russia's assertion, made earlier in the day by deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov.

British police said Tuesday they had arrested two men on suspicion of involvement in terrorism overseas and seized ammunition after they arrived at the port of Dover from France.

The men aged 29 and 22, both British citizens, were held on Monday morning at the port in southern England and remain in custody at a London police station, the Metropolitan Police said.

Russia and France on Tuesday admitted they still had differences over how to solve the Syrian conflict ahead of a debate in the U.N. Security Council over stripping the country of its chemical arsenal.

After meeting in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and French counterpart Laurent Fabius said they had differing visions of how to proceed toward the common goal of a peaceful and chemical weapons-free Syria.

Damascus on Tuesday accused the West of trying to impose its will on the Syrian people, after major powers said they would press for a U.N. resolution to rid Syria of chemical arms.

"The United States, France and Britain have revealed their true objective... which is to impose their will on the Syrian people," the Foreign Ministry said.