France's culture minister has demanded an explanation from the Musee d'Orsay after a family visiting as guests of an anti-poverty group were asked to leave because snooty fellow visitors complained that they smelled.

ATD-Quart Monde, who had treated the hard-up couple and their 12-year-old child to a tour of the museum on Saturday, described the family's ejection from the celebrated museum as blatant discrimination.

French troops on Wednesday entered Kidal, the last Islamist bastion in Mali's north to be recaptured in a whirlwind Paris-led offensive amid reports the radicals have regrouped in remote hills near Algeria.

Their arrival in Kidal comes days after the capture of Gao and Timbuktu in a three-week offensive that Paris now hopes to wind down and hand over to African troops.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has postponed an official visit to France this week, the French presidency said Tuesday, as days of deadly clashes brought his rule to the brink of collapse.

Morsi had been due to meet French President Francois Hollande on Friday to discuss France's military intervention in Mali, which he has criticized.

The Syrian opposition on Tuesday told French senators that it wanted arms but no foreign intervention in Syria, a Senate committee said after a hearing.

"The delegation said it was disappointed by the global community's lack of support and stressed the need for it to receive weapons to wage an effective fight, which isn't currently possible," the foreign affairs and defense committee said in a statement.

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday that Paris is set to deport a string of radical religious imams as part of a fight against "global jihadism".

"Several radical foreign preachers will be expelled in the coming days," Valls told a Brussels conference called to tackle extremism in Europe, without identifying any of the individuals concerned.

Phalange leader Amin Gemayel has said that the March 14 opposition alliance was exerting strong efforts to preserve the coalition despite electoral differences.

“The efforts are currently being exerting to achieve true partnership while preserving the March 14 (alliance) and the national interest,” Gemayel told An Nahar daily following talks with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Paris on Monday.

A U.S. congresswoman on Monday urged France not to release Lebanese militant Georges Abdallah, despite his being granted parole after nearly three decades behind bars.

U.S. Representative Grace Meng said she would draw up a bipartisan letter with other members of Congress calling on France to scrap Abdallah's possible release.

Nigerian extremists have issued direct threats to France in retaliation for military action in Mali, the French consulate here said Monday, while warning its citizens against travel to northern Nigeria.

"A growing situation of insecurity is resulting from the intervention undertaken in Mali against the advance of terrorist groups," the advisory from the consulate said.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat discussed with French President Francois Hollande on Monday “the importance of preserving stability in Lebanon and safeguarding the country from Syria's conflict”.

"Dialogue between different factions of the country can eliminate all concerns they have,” Jumblat said after meeting with Hollande in Paris, expressing that no party will emerge as a sole winner and dominate after the elections.

President Francois Hollande said Monday that Malian troops backed by nearly 3,000 French soldiers were winning the battle to recapture the north of the country from Islamists.

"We are winning this battle," he told reporters as officials said French and Malian troops had seized control of parts of Timbuktu, a bastion of radical Islamists occupying northern Mali since last April.