Syria's regime on Sunday slammed as "hostile" a French decision to host an opposition ambassador, as its forces bombarded southern districts of the capital and clashes raged nationwide.

France on Saturday invited the National Coalition, the newly formed Syrian opposition bloc, to send an envoy to Paris, after President Francois Hollande met its leader, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib.

Damascus deems hostile a decision by France to host an ambassador from the newly formed Syrian opposition National Coalition, a Syrian minister said in key regional ally Iran on Sunday.

"France is acting like a hostile nation," Ali Haidar, minister for national reconciliation, told Agence France Presse.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius left Paris Sunday for Israel "to call on all the parties to stop the escalation and offer France's help to reach an immediate ceasefire," his ministry said.

During his one-day trip, the minister will meet with the Israeli authorities and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, his ministry said in a statement.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati said he kicks off a three-day visit to Paris on Monday with a hand extended to the Lebanese March 14 opposition coalition.

“I go to Paris with a hand extended to the Lebanese and mainly the opposition,” Miqati told An Nahar daily on the eve of his official visit to France.

Syria's new opposition coalition signaled Saturday that it intends to move quickly to establish a broad-based alternative government to the regime of President Bashar Assad.

After talks with French President Francois Hollande, coalition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib assured the international community that the transitional government will be composed of technocrats rather than politicians, and include representatives of all the war-torn country's ethnic and religious groups.

Syria's new opposition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib met Saturday with French President Francois Hollande for talks on protection of "liberated" zones, refugees and the formation of a provisional government for the war-torn state.

Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius met Khatib and his two deputies in the Elysee palace for talks that come just four days after France became the first Western country to recognize the newly-formed National Coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people.

France on Friday dashed the hopes of those who had planned to take refuge in one of the few places on Earth some believe will be spared when the world ends on December 21.

Local officials banned access to the Pic de Bugarach, a mountain in the southwest where rumor has it the hilltop will open on the last day and aliens will emerge with spaceships to save nearby humans.

The leaders of Poland and France say they want the new European Union budget to allow for development and further integration despite the need for cuts and austerity measures.

French President Francois Hollande visited Warsaw on Friday and met with his Polish counterpart, Bronislaw Komorowski. They said EU leaders need to make targeted decisions as they discuss the upcoming EU budget, in order to help the 27-nation bloc and its 17-nation eurozone overcome the current debt crisis.

French President Francois Hollande said Friday he was seriously concerned by the escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip and had spoken to Israeli and Egyptian leaders a day earlier.

"I am seriously concerned by what is happening in the Gaza Strip, both by the rocket attacks on Israel and the reprisals that this escalation may bring," Hollande told reporters at a joint press conference with Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowski, who called for a resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

British police Friday arrested a suspected member of the armed Basque separatist group ETA who is accused of taking part in several killings, the Spanish government said.

The suspect, 45-year-old Raul Angel Fuentes Villota, was detained in Liverpool under a European arrest warrant in an operation assisted by Spanish police, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.