Switzerland said Friday that it would take in 1,500 refugees and migrants over the next two years while strengthening support for Syria peace talks, which Bern called the "priority" for resolving Europe's humanitarian crisis. 

A Federal Council statement said Switzerland would only accept those "who have already been registered in Italy or Greece," the two countries which have received the overwhelming majority of people who have washed up on Europe's shores this year. 

European countries will increase identity checks and baggage controls on trains after American passengers thwarted an attack on a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris, France's interior minister said Saturday.

Bernard Cazeneuve said the checks would be carried out "everywhere it is necessary" but did not give other details. He spoke after an emergency meeting in Paris with top security and transport officials from nine countries and the European Union in the wake of last week's attack attempt.

The United States on Thursday sanctioned four members of a Colombian rebel group for their alleged role in narcotics trafficking and money laundering in Switzerland.

The sanctions freeze any assets of the four may have under U.S. jurisdiction, and prohibits Americans or U.S. entities from engaging in transactions with them.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday urged the European Union to negotiate with Switzerland on Bern's plans for new quotas on immigration from the bloc.

"Relations with Switzerland are important to me, and I hope a deal will be found," Steinmeier said while visiting Swiss counterpart Didier Burkhalter in Bern, the ATS news agency reported.

A leading Swiss politician said people fleeing conflict should only receive temporary protection in Switzerland, calling for a rethinking of the country's approach to asylum seekers in an interview published Sunday. 

"People displaced by war should still be taken in but only with the aim of sending them back later when the situation in their country of origin allows it," Philipp Mueller, leader of the influential center-right FDP party, told the Schweiz am Sonntag paper.

Switzerland on Thursday lifted several already suspended economic sanctions against Iran, following last month's historic deal between Tehran and world powers on the Iranian nuclear program.

Citing the "important turning point in the 12-year nuclear dispute," the Swiss government said it had decided to lift some sanctions against Iran that had already been suspended in January 2014.

The bodies of two Japanese climbers have been found on the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps, a Tokyo official said Wednesday, three days after the pair got into difficulty on the mountain.

Japan's foreign ministry said the two were both men in their 60s, but declined to supply further details because their families had not given consent.

Switzerland on Thursday authorized the extradition of former Bosnian Muslim commander Naser Oric to Bosnia rather than Serbia, which had issued the war crimes warrant for his arrest.

Oric, who led Muslim forces in Bosnia's east during its 1992-1995 civil war, was arrested on June 10 in Geneva, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity against ethnic Serbs during the conflict.

The financial assets of one of Syria's wealthiest men -- a cousin of Syrian President Bashar Assad -- will remain frozen in Switzerland, the Swiss Federal Administrative Court said in a statement.

The court rejected an appeal by billionaire Rami Makhlouf to reverse a federal decision blocking an undisclosed amount of money in his Swiss accounts -- which the government says helps "finance" and "support" Assad's violent regime.

A Swiss court has ruled that Credit Suisse's decision to provide U.S. tax authorities with information on an employee was illegal, according to the ruling made public Monday.

In April 2012, the Swiss government gave 11 Swiss banks the go-ahead to accommodate a U.S. tax evasion probe and hand over the names of thousands of their employees and consultants working with American clients.