Syria's parliament speaker on Wednesday urged France "not to hasten" to act against his war-torn country, as French lawmakers prepared to hold a debate on whether punitive strikes against the regime should go ahead.

The French parliament is due to hold the debate from 1400 GMT following President Francois Hollande's pledge to "punish" Damascus for an alleged poison gas attack on August 21 that the West blames on the regime. But it will not vote Wednesday on the issue.

Nearly three quarters of French people want any potential military intervention in Syria to be put to a vote in parliament, according to a poll Tuesday.

Of the 74 percent of people who said they were in favor of a vote, 42 percent said they were "firmly for" a vote, while 32 percent would "prefer" a vote, according to the CSA poll for BFM television.

France on Tuesday urged its European Union partners to unite in response to the Syria crisis, as Paris pushes for punitive military strikes against Bashar Assad's regime.

"Europe must also unite on this issue. It will do so, each with its own responsibility. France will assume its own," President Francois Hollande said during a joint press conference with German counterpart Joachim Gauck.

Caretaker Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour might meet with al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri in southern France before attending a refugee conference in Geneva.

Al-Joumhouria newspaper said Tuesday that Abou Faour, who has been tasked by Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat to negotiate on the cabinet formation process, could meet Hariri in Nice to discuss the process with him.

President Michel Suleiman, who is scheduled to travel to France and New York this month, is expected to hold talks with several world leaders on the Syrian crisis and the refugee influx in Lebanon.

As Safir newspaper said Tuesday that Suleiman will first travel to the southern French city of Nice to attend on Sept. 6 and 7 the Francophone games that are a combination of artistic and sporting events for the mostly French speaking countries.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said there would be no vote during Wednesday's parliamentary debate on the Syria crisis, adding that there was no doubt that Damascus was behind a deadly chemical attack.

"The regime of Bashar Assad has committed the irredeemable on August 21," Ayrault said on Monday.

Syrian leader Bashar Assad warned Monday that Western military strikes would risk igniting a "regional war" in the "powder keg" of the Middle East, in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro.

He also said France would face "repercussions" if it took part in U.S.-led plans for military action in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack by Assad's regime last month.

A French intelligence report released Monday said there was "massive use of chemical agents" in an August 21 attack in Syria and that only the regime could have been responsible.

The report, made public after Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault met with lawmakers, said the "Syrian regime launched an attack on some suburbs of Damascus held by units of the opposition, combining conventional means with the massive use of chemical agents."

France was set Monday to provide what it says is clear evidence that the Syrian regime was behind a devastating chemical attack, as Western leaders bid to overcome widespread skepticism to military action.

With U.S. President Barack Obama also lobbying Congress to back strikes, the Syrian regime said it remained on alert for a possible attack, urging the United Nations to "prevent any aggression" against it.

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) spied on the internal communications of France's foreign ministry and diplomats and those of Qatar-based television station al-Jazeera, a German magazine said Sunday.

Der Spiegel reported that in 2010 the NSA monitored the internal computer network of France's diplomats and that of the ministry itself by accessing so-called virtual private networks (VPN), a tool that generally offers a secure internet connection to users.