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.

President Michel Suleiman toured southern Lebanon on Thursday to inspect army troops and UNIFIL units stationed south of the Litani River.

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn and Army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji accompanied Suleiman.

France defied a threat of sanctions from Turkey, a key NATO ally and one of Europe's fastest growing economies, on Thursday, when lawmakers voted to ban the denial of the Armenian genocide.

Turkey had threatened diplomatic and trade sanctions if the bill passed, accusing President Nicolas Sarkozy's right-wing UMP party of pandering to France's large Armenian community ahead of elections next year.

Health authorities sought Wednesday to reassure 50,000 British women who have breast implants made by a French company at the heart of a cancer scare, saying there was no evidence of a link to the disease.

France has said up to 30,000 women there may need to remove defective implants produced by the Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) company amid cancer fears, even though no "causal link" to the disease had yet been established.

France denounced Wednesday what it said was the "unprecedented massacre" of 120 people by Syrian forces and urged Russia to accelerate talks for a U.N. Security Council resolution on the crisis.

At his regular briefing, French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said: "Everything must be put in motion to end this murderous spiral into which Bashar Assad is dragging his people, deeper each day."

The Armenian genocide is a "fact of history" and a proposed French law making it illegal to deny this has nothing to do with upcoming elections, France's minister for Europe said on Wednesday.

"Today all peoples must be lucid and courageous in looking at their history. It has been nearly 100 years since the Armenian genocide took place, those responsible are dead, it is simply a matter of recognizing a fact of history," European Affairs Minister Jean Leonetti told Radio Classique.

European Union powers led condemnation by U.N. Security Council members Tuesday of Israel's increased settlements in the occupied territories and growing attacks by settlers on Palestinians.

Britain, France, Germany and Portugal said in a joint statement after a council meeting on the Middle East conflict that they were "dismayed by these wholly negative developments" and the threat they pose to the peace process.

The director for United Nations and international organizations in the French Foreign Ministry Nicolas de Riviere renewed on Tuesday France’s support to Lebanon and its commitment to maintaining the stability and security of the South.

The French Embassy said in a statement: “De Riviere informed Lebanese officials during his trip to Lebanon that France will remain part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon in order to preserve the stability of Lebanon and the region.”

The Turkish government will impose a raft of diplomatic and trade sanctions against Paris if French lawmakers adopt an Armenian genocide bill this week, a government source said on Tuesday.

"Turkey will not remain silent. That will obviously have consequences," the source told Agence France Presse.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon ad interim Robert Watkins hoped on Monday that the Lebanese authorities will take the necessary measures to bring those behind the attacks against the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon to justice.

He said after holding talks with Hizbullah International Relations official Ammar Moussawi: “It is in the interest of all parties to ensure that security is guaranteed for those, such as UNIFIL troops, who are trying to maintain stability in the South along the Blue Line.”