French President Francois Hollande's partner Valerie Trierweiler admitted Wednesday she had made a mistake in firing off a tweet snubbing Hollande's ex-companion and said she regretted it.

"It was a mistake that I regret. I must have been clumsy because this was badly interpreted," Trierweiler told the Ouest-France newspaper. "I had not yet realized that I was no longer a simple citizen. It won't happen again."

French President Francois Hollande's partner Valerie Trierweiler admitted Wednesday she had made a mistake in firing off a tweet snubbing Hollande's ex-companion and said she regretted it.

"It was a mistake that I regret. I must have been clumsy because this was badly interpreted," Trierweiler told newspaper Ouest-France. "I had not yet realised that I was no longer a simple citizen. It won't happen again."

The cabinet on Wednesday postponed the discussion of a report prepared by a Lebanese delegation that visited France to learn about the mechanism used there to intercept phone calls, while tasking a panel with studying the creation of an independent national commission for the forcibly disappeared persons.

The panel is headed by Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi and comprises State Minister Ali Qansou, Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour and Labor Minister Salim Jreissati, Information Minister Walid al-Daouq told reporters after the cabinet session.

The controversial issue of wiretapping resurfaced on Tuesday as the cabinet will address the report handed over by a Lebanese delegation that visited France to view the modern mechanisms in intercepting phone calls.

The matter will top the government's 82-article agenda on Wednesday during a session that will convene at the Grand Serail.

A prominent critic of Cambodia's government was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday for an alleged secessionist plot, dismaying rights campaigners who decried the verdict as politically motivated.

Radio station owner Mam Sonando, who has dual Cambodian-French citizenship, was also fined 10 million riel ($2,500) by a Phnom Penh court which convicted him on charges including insurrection and inciting people to take up arms against the state.

Tens of thousands of left-wing protesters took to the streets of Paris on Sunday to denounce EU-driven austerity measures being pushed on member states, a day after similar protests in Spain and Portugal.

Chanting "Resistance!" protesters marched through central Paris in a rally organizers said was aimed at fighting EU-imposed austerity, not at criticizing the government of Socialist President Francois Hollande.

France on Friday unveiled shock fiscal action to plug a 37-billion-euro hole in public finances with the toughest package of tax rises and spending cuts the country has known in an economic downturn.

The 2013 budget adopted by President Francois Hollande's cabinet commits the ruling Socialists to an austerity program at a time when the economy is teetering on the brink of recession.

France's Socialist government vowed Thursday to do more to integrate the country's Muslims but warned that it would not tolerate the country becoming a hotbed of Islamic radicalism.

In a speech marking the inauguration of the Strasbourg Grand Mosque, the biggest Islamic place of worship ever built on French soil, Interior Minister Manuel Valls pledged to come down hard on extremists, warning that foreign activists trying to stir up trouble would be immediately deported.

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton says he could in theory run for president in Ireland or France -- but admitted his bad French would make him "toast" in an election there.

The 66-year-old, who served two terms in the White House from 1993 to 2001, said his Irish heritage made him eligible to run for office there, while the fact he was born in Arkansas means he could enter a Gallic poll race.

French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday called for the U.N. Security Council to meet urgently to approve Mali's call for an African-led force to help flush out armed Islamist rebels.

"It has come time for the international community to come to the assistance of Mali. The time has come," he told a high-level meeting on the mounting humanitarian crisis in the west African region of the Sahel.