France flew its last combat troops out of Afghanistan on Saturday, two years before allied nations in the 100,000-strong NATO mission led by the United States are due to recall their fighting forces.

Around 200 soldiers of the 25th Belfort infantry regiment, responsible for overseeing the hastened French exit from the 11-year war, took off around 2:30 pm local time (1000 GMT), an airport official told AFP.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat is scheduled to travel to France to meet with a number of officials, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

He is expected to hold talks with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Monday.

Syrian leader President Bashar Assad is losing the fight against rebel forces and must be made to leave as quickly as possible, French President Francois Hollande said Friday.

"On the ground, the war is now turning against Assad and we should set ourselves this objective -- make Assad leave as quickly as possible," Hollande said as he went into a meeting of EU leaders where the Syrian conflict will be discussed.

French authorities have asked the European Parliament to lift the immunity of far-right leader Marine Le Pen so she can be prosecuted for comparing Islamic prayers to the Nazi occupation, officials said Monday.

Justice ministry spokesman Pierre Rance told Agence France Presse the request was sent to European Parliament President Martin Schulz late last month.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika told Agence France Presse in an exclusive interview that Algeria wants "strong and dynamic" relations with France, ahead of a visit to Algiers by French President Francois Hollande.

Algeria "favors a strong and dynamic relationship with France, based on the depth of links and the many interests which unite our two countries," Bouteflika said in a written reply to questions from AFP.

The Taliban said Monday it would attend a conference in Paris on Afghanistan this month but would not hold peace talks with Afghan government delegates or other groups.

A member of Afghanistan's government-appointed High Peace Council said however that its representatives would meet the Taliban.

Syria's rebel ambassador to France warned Sunday that the "passivity" of the international community was boosting the rise of Islamist extremists in his war-torn country.

Monzer Makhous, named last month as the Syrian opposition National Coalition's envoy to Paris, also called in a newspaper interview for the weapons embargo to be lifted so rebels could better arm themselves.

A man arrested this week in connection with the March attacks by extremist gunman Mohamed Merah has been released without charge, a judicial source said on Friday.

The 38-year-old man was detained on Tuesday along with his ex-girlfriend, also 38, who was released earlier.

Ziad Takieddine, a Franco-Lebanese businessman who has been charged with corruption in the "Karachi" kickbacks affair is also being investigated for suspected money laundering after being detained with 1.5 million euros in cash, it emerged Thursday.

Judicial sources said Takieddine, who is allegedly embroiled in a string of illegal political financing scandals in France, had been caught with the money on a private flight out of Libya in March 2011, prior to the overthrow of Libya's then President Moammar Gadhafi.

Residents of a sleepy French village in Bordeaux have been left dumbfounded after discovering their local 18th-century chateau was completely bulldozed "by mistake."

The mayor's office in Yvrac said Wednesday that workers who were hired to renovate the grand 13,000-square-meter (140,000-square-foot) manor and raze a small building on the same estate in southwest France mixed them up.