Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Wednesday held talks with former prime minister Saad Hariri in the French capital Paris.

Earlier in the day, al-Rahi said the presence of Christians in the Middle East “protects Islam from bigotry and extremism,” during a lecture at the Catholic institute in Paris.

French central bank governor Christian Noyer said Wednesday that France should freeze pensions, civil servant salaries and social benefits to save 40 billion euros ($52 billion) by 2014 as it tries to cut a swollen public deficit and jumpstart growth that is forecast to be almost flat this year.

Noyer told Europe 1 radio that France had to come up with 40 billion euros in savings this year and next to reach the EU deficit limit of 3.0 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), saying Paris had to have "the same level of spending" in 2014 as in 2012.

Former French first lady Carla Bruni's new album rose to second place in the country's music charts only a week after being released, her label Barclay Records told Agence France Presse on Tuesday.

The album, "Little French Songs," sold nearly 19,000 copies on CD and was downloaded 3,794 times between its release on April 1 and April 7, the label said.

French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday held talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Paris, stressing his country's keenness on Lebanon's stability and calling on the international community to assist Lebanon in confronting the Syrian refugee crisis.

“The meeting was characterized with warmheartedness and cordiality and the two sides tackled the Lebanese-French ties and the impact of the situations in the region on Lebanon,” said a statement issued by the Elysee Palace.

France has withdrawn its first batch of soldiers from Mali, the army said Tuesday, as it begins to pull out troops sent to battle Islamist fighters in the west African nation.

The military's chief of staff said around 100 soldiers had been withdrawn and sent to Paphos in Cyprus, where they will spend three days in a hotel before heading back to France.

A French force of 1,000 soldiers in a major offensive has swept a valley thought to be a logistics base for al-Qaida-linked Islamists near the Malian city of Gao, an Agence France Presse journalist accompanying the mission reported.

Operation Gustav, one of France's largest actions since its intervention in its former colony, involves dozens of tanks, helicopters and aircraft, said General Bernard Barrera, commander of the French land forces in Mali, on Monday.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi met on Monday with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius upon his arrival to Paris, and both men agreed on "the importance of abiding by the policy of disassociation towards regional events", the state-run National News Agency reported.

Radio Voice of Lebanon (100.5) said: “During his meeting with al-Rahi, Fabius voiced a clear political stance on the need that Lebanon continue its dissociation towards everything taking place in Syria”.

Congolese leader Denis Sassou Nguesso on Monday said France's justice system had no right to probe his alleged ill-gotten gains, following a meeting with French counterpart Francois Hollande.

"What we would like to recall is the principle to which we all subscribe on the international level, which is non-interference in internal affairs," Republic of Congo President Sassou Nguesso told journalists on a trip to France.

A French court on Thursday annulled a parole granted to Lebanese leftist militant Georges Abdallah, after postponing its final decision several times, al-Mayadeen television reported.

Meanwhile, LBCI said security forces closed the road outside the French embassy in Beirut in anticipation of a possible protest by Georges Abdallah's supporters.

A solution to the conflict in Western Sahara, where a U.N. peacekeeping force has been deployed for two decades, is more important than ever as a result of the Islamist revolt raging in northern Mali, the French president said on Thursday.

"The economic potential is enormous. But I am also aware of the obstacles, and the question of the Western Sahara, which has been waiting to be resolved for more than 30 years," President Francois Hollande told the Moroccan parliament.