The head of the main opposition Syrian National Council hailed Friday the defection of a top general as a major blow to President Bashar Assad's regime and said they wanted to work with him.

"This is a major blow to the Assad regime," Abdel Basset Sayda told journalists at a meeting in Paris. "We cannot comment where he is. We are going to seek some cooperation with him. We call for other defections.

French President Francois Hollande reiterated on Friday that his country will continue to defend Lebanon’s independence, sovereignty and unity of its territories.

“Our main concern is to preserve the stability (in Lebanon),” Hollande said in a cable sent to Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea.

A heavily-armed man who shot dead four hostages and then himself in an hours-long siege at a German apartment over his imminent eviction was French, police said Thursday.

"I know that he is French and that he is from Alsace," a police spokesman told Agence France Presse, a day after the man barricaded himself and four people inside the flat in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe, 70 kilometers (40 miles) from the French border.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblt received on Thursday a cable from French President Francois Hollande, who voiced his country’s keenness on Lebanon’s stability and security.

He said in a cable to the Druze leader: “We have long defended Lebanon’s independence and sovereignty and we will continue on defending the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.”

Britain and France Wednesday said there could be no political transition in Syria with President Bashar Assad and urged Russia to stop backing its traditional ally.

The comments by British Foreign Secretary William Hague and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius came after world powers agreed in Geneva on Saturday on a plan for transition in Syria.

The French military officially handed over control of the key Afghan province of Kapisa to local forces on Wednesday.

The transfer is an important stage in France's withdrawal from the war-torn country, which new President Francois Hollande has accelerated by ordering the return of troops by the end of 2012, a year earlier than previously planned.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is to meet U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday in Paris, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told Agence France Presse on Wednesday.

"President Abbas will visit France on Thursday and hold important meetings with European and U.S. officials, including French President Francois Hollande and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on Friday," Erakat said.

French police searched Nicolas Sarkozy's offices and home Tuesday as part of their probe into suspected illegal financing of his successful 2007 presidential election campaign, his lawyer said.

Magistrates are investigating claims that staff for Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to the L'Oreal cosmetics empire and France's richest woman, gave envelopes stuffed with cash to Sarkozy aides to finance the campaign.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Tuesday reiterated his government's determination to prevent groups like al-Qaida setting up "international terror bases" in rebel-held north Mali.

"Our determination will be total in preventing groups like AQIM (Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb) setting up international terror bases that threaten the peace and prosperity of the whole region and our security too," he said.

France said Tuesday it was confident that the United Nations Security Council would soon pass a resolution authorizing a west African force to fight rebels holding northern Mali.

"We are confident it will be adopted," said Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.