President Francois Hollande announced Tuesday that France recognized the newly formed Syria opposition as the sole representative of the people of the conflict-ravaged country and said it was time to review whether the rebels should be given arms.

"I announce that France recognizes the Syrian National Coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people and thus as the future provisional government of a democratic Syria, allowing an end to the Bashar Assad regime," Hollande told a press conference.

A German court on Tuesday began hearing the country's first lawsuit over a health scandal surrounding French-made breast implants found to leak silicone into women's bodies.

The regional court in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe opened the case brought by a 40-year-old woman who opted for the implants from French manufacturer Poly Implant Prothese or PIP in 2007 after three pregnancies.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius urged world powers on Tuesday to recognize the newly formed Syrian opposition bloc.

"Our hope is that the different countries recognize the Syrian national coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people... France's role is to make that hope possible," Fabius told reporters in Cairo.

The European Union is waiting for the outcome of a Bulgarian inquiry into a deadly suicide bombing attack on Israelis in July before deciding on whether to list Hizbullah as a terrorist organization, the French Ambassador to Israel said.

“Our British friends would like to put Hizbullah’s military wing on the terror list,” Christophe Bigot told The Jerusalem Post.

Leading bishops have voiced alarm at a rise in anti-Islamic sentiment in France and admitted that hardening attitudes within the Roman Catholic church are fueling the trend.

In comments that will add to pressure on President Francois Hollande to respond to demands from France's large Muslim community to speak out on the issue, the Bishop of Angouleme, Claude Dagens, said he was profoundly concerned by recent developments.

An Algerian military cargo plane traveling with six people on board from Paris to Algiers went down in flames Friday in a mountainous region of southern France, officials said.

Around 60 firefighters were at the scene of the accident in a forest clearing near the village of Trelans, the fire service said without providing details on the number of victims, the cause of the crash, or the type of plane.

A Sri Lankan man who was gunned down in Paris was Friday identified as Nadarajah Mathinthiran, a former Tamil Tiger commander who had been convicted in France of extortion and raising funds for terrorism.

Mathinthiran, who was born in 1963, was shot dead on Thursday evening as he came out of the headquarters of the Tamil Coordination Committee in France (CCTF), an organization regarded as a front for what remains of the Tigers.

Germany, which has emerged as the dominant player in the eurozone crisis, has breathed a sigh of relief over reforms unveiled by France owing to fears that a key partner could go the way of Greece.

Berlin has seen the centre of gravity in Europe creep ever more in its direction during three years of eurozone turmoil due to its role as paymaster, and cautiously but clearly welcomed French measures laid out on Tuesday.

France's Socialist government Wednesday adopted a draft law to authorize gay marriage and adoption despite fierce opposition from the Roman Catholic Church and the right-wing opposition.

President Francois Hollande, who made the issue a key part of his electoral platform, told a cabinet meeting the move was "not only a step forward for some but for all of society," government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said.

France unveiled Tuesday tax breaks for businesses worth up to 20 billion euros a year in a bid to address the flagging competitiveness at the heart of the country's economic malaise.

"France needs a new model that will put it back at the center of the world economy," Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said, adding the government had decided to implement virtually all of the measures recommended in a report drawn up at its request by industrialist Louis Gallois.