The IMF said Friday that France's growth outlook "remains fragile" and warned that it would probably miss its target of reducing its public deficit to three percent next year.

"Growth remains sluggish and the near-term outlook is subject to downside risks," it said, saying France's 2013 deficit would not fall below 3.5 percent, while growth will fall from 1.7 percent in 2011 to 0.2 percent in 2012.

EU Economy Commissioner Olli Rehn said Friday that France needed more reform rather than more austerity, suggesting a slower fiscal adjustment a day after the government's ability to meet its deficit target was called into question.

"Additional savings measures are not essential," Rehn told the French daily Le Monde, saying a public deficit of 3.0 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) remained the target but adding that once a credible medium-term budget plan backed up by reforms was in place "you can have a slower adjustment".

Gunmen who abducted a Frenchman in northern Nigeria probably have links to al Qaida's north African group or to Islamist groups in northern Mali, French President Francois Hollande said Friday.

"He was captured by a heavily armed group which killed two Nigerians and is probably linked to AQIM (Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb) or the groups which are today in Mali," he told a French radio station.

Representatives of Afghanistan's warring factions met here Thursday for two days of landmark talks that diplomats hope will bolster a fledgling peace process in the war-torn country.

For the first time since a U.S.-led bombing campaign drove the Taliban from power in 2001, senior figures in the Islamist movement sat down with officials from the government and other opposition forces for a round table discussion on the country's future that was brokered by a French think tank.

French President Francois Hollande on Thursday acknowledged France's "brutal" colonial rule over the Algerian people, without having to apologize, as he sought to launch a new era in ties on a two-day visit.

"Over 132 years, Algeria was subjected to a profoundly unjust and brutal system," Hollande told the Algerian parliament on the final day of a landmark visit to the North African country, to applause from MPs.

French President Francois Hollande said on Wednesday that he had not come to Algeria to offer "apologies" for crimes committed during the colonial period.

"I have not come here... to offer repentance or apologies. I have come to say what is true," Hollande told a news conference in Algiers, on the first day of his landmark visit to the former French colony.

Central African rebels seized a town near the border with Chad on Wednesday, a day after Chadian troops entered the country at Bangui's request to help the army contain the rebel offensive.

The escalating violence drew calls from former colonial power France for a broad national dialogue.

French President Francois Hollande arrived in Algeria on Wednesday for a landmark visit to the former French territory, amid hopes of a new phase in relations but persistent bitterness over crimes committed during colonial rule.

Hollande was received with full honors by his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika as he got off the plane.

Renault will sign a pact Wednesday to build its first plant in Algeria during a highly symbolic visit by President Francois Hollande to the former French colony, a company spokeswoman said.

"Renault will sign the agreement tomorrow," she said, confirming press reports.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat said on Tuesday that the large number of Syrian and Palestinian refugees entering Lebanon from the neighboring country became a burden on the state, urging the government to double its efforts to confront the humanitarian crisis.

According to As Safir newspaper, Jumblat called during talks with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in Paris on Monday on the competent international agencies to cooperate to aid Lebanon in this matter.