The United States on Thursday offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of a key al-Qaida fundraiser, who is said to be a Syrian operating from Iran.

The reward for Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil marks the first time that a "terrorist financier" has been targeted in such a way, said Robert Hartung, assistant director for threat investigations with the State Department.

Tehran's envoy to the U.N. atomic agency said Thursday he would meet the watchdog's chief nuclear inspector in Vienna in the first week of January to arrange a visit to Iran as soon as possible.

"As soon as the holidays are over we will sit down with Mr. (Herman) Nackaerts and arrange the visit," Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Tehran's envoy to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Agence France Presse.

France expressed regret Thursday that Turkey had withdrawn its ambassador to Paris, and called on its NATO ally not to overreact to a law to punish the denial of the Armenian genocide.

"First of all, I hope that our Turkish friends do not overreact to this decision by the French National Assembly," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told reporters in Bordeaux, the southwestern city where he is mayor.

Deputy Russian Prime Minister and one-time presidential hopeful Sergei Ivanov, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, has been appointed the Kremlin chief of staff, Kremlin spokeswoman Natalia Timakova.

"(President Dmitry) Medvedev has appointed Sergei Ivanov as the head of his administration," Natalia Timakova told Agence France Presse.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a raft of political and military sanctions on Thursday after French lawmakers approved a bill making it a crime to deny Armenian genocide.

Turkey will recall its ambassador from Paris and suspend mutual political visits as well as joint military projects, including joint exercises, Erdogan said.

Turkey has recalled its ambassador from Paris in protest at a decision by the French parliament to back a law banning denial of the Armenian genocide, a spokesman for the embassy said Thursday.

Tahsin Burcuoglu will leave France on Friday, while further measures in response to the vote will be announced in Turkey by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, spokesman Engin Solakoglu told AFP.

Belgium's public sector workers went on strike Thursday to protest a pension reform plan as the latest anti-austerity movement to grip Europe shut down transport links across the kingdom.

The strike halted rail traffic, including Thalys services to France, Germany and the Netherlands, and the Eurostar link to Britain.

The United States will soon concede responsibility in part for last month's drone air strikes in Pakistan that killed 24 soldiers, U.S. media reports said Thursday citing U.S. officials.

Results of a U.S. military probe, to be given to defense officials Friday, show U.S. and Afghan commandos were wrong in concluding there were no Pakistani forces in the border region before giving a strike go-ahead, officials familiar with the probe told the Wall Street Journal.

Pakistan's embattled Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Thursday said conspirators were plotting to bring down his government and delivered an unprecedented tirade against the powerful military.

In astonishing confirmation that he fears being ousted, he angrily denied the government was subservient to the army, long considered the chief arbiter of power in Pakistan as his administration grapples with a damaging scandal.

Closing arguments are to be held Thursday to decide whether a U.S. soldier accused of a colossal intelligence breach should face a court-martial that could send him to prison for life.

During six days of testimony, prosecutors portrayed U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning as a skilled intelligence analyst who betrayed his trust by funneling a trove of classified U.S. documents to secret-spilling website WikiLeaks.