French ambassador to Syria Eric Chevallier has returned to Damascus more than two weeks after being recalled in response to the Syrian government's crackdown on dissent, the embassy said on Friday.

"I can confirm that the ambassador of France returned to Damascus on Thursday night," a spokesman told Agence France Presse.

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was freed from French police custody Wednesday after two days of questioning about an alleged prostitution ring but faces a further grilling next month.

A judicial source said Strauss-Kahn, once considered a front-runner to become the next president of France, would be summoned to appear before investigating magistrates on March 28 on charges linked to prostitution and corruption.

France on Wednesday demanded access to the victims of an attack in Syria that killed a U.S. war correspondent and French photojournalist, and summoned Syria's envoy to Paris.

Syria has meanwhile denied that it was aware that the journalists had entered the country.

French Ambassador Denis Pietton hoped on Wednesday that the cabinet would resume its functions in implementing reforms after Premier Najib Miqati suspended the government sessions over his accusations that ministers loyal to Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun were being unproductive.

“After what I’ve heard from Aoun, I hope that the government would resume its work and activities in implementing reform,” Pietton said after meeting with the FPM chief in Rabieh.

"A Cat in Paris", France's contender for best animated feature at Sunday's Oscars, is a cartoon caper with a film noir edge, the latest in a string of international hits for French animation studios.

The low-budget whodunnit thriller -- whose original title is "Une Vie de Chat" -- is the fourth French animated feature to compete at the Academy Awards in recent years, following such hits as the Franco-Iranian "Persepolis".

France's top two football divisions have witnessed an unwelcome upsurge in racist abuse from the terraces in the 2011-12 season to date, a police report released on Monday revealed.

According to Antoine Boutonnet, head of the National Division for the Fight against Hooliganism (DNLH), "a worrying phenomenon is the return of racism in the stands".

French police detained former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn for questioning Tuesday over allegations he took part in orgies in Paris and Washington paid for by a pair of businessmen.

The 62-year-old former Socialist minister, who until last year was seen as the frontrunner to replace Nicolas Sarkozy as president of France, had been summoned as a witness but prosecutors said he was now a suspect.

Spanish authorities announced they had arrested Tuesday two suspected members of ETA, the Basque separatist movement which called an end to its armed struggle last year, after a tip-off from France.

The interior ministry said that police had detained Juan Ignacio Otano Labaca, 51, in the Andoain area of the northern Basque country while Inaki Iguerategui Lizarribar, 42, was detained in the nearby Tolosa.

Iran will cut oil exports to other EU countries if their "hostile actions" continue, the deputy oil minister who heads the state oil company said Monday, a day after Tehran halted sales to France and Britain.

Exports to Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Germany and the Netherlands would be stopped; Ahmed Qalebani was quoted as saying by Mehr news agency.

Iran has halted its limited oil sales to France and Britain in retaliation for a phased EU ban on Iranian oil that is yet to take full effect, the oil ministry said on Sunday.

"Oil sales to British and French companies have ceased," spokesman Ali Reza Nikzad Rahbar said in a statement on the ministry's official website.