A French minister said there was no such thing as moderate Islam, calling recent election successes by Islamic parties in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia "worrying" in an interview published Saturday.

Jeannette Bougrab, a junior minister with responsibility for youth, told Le Parisien newspaper that legislation based on Islamic sharia law "inevitably" imposed restrictions on rights and freedoms.

France has decided to temporarily downsize its embassy in Tehran as a precautionary measure following the storming of the British embassy earlier in the week, a French diplomat told AFP on Saturday.

The decision will affect part of the diplomatic staff as well as all of the families of French personnel at the embassy but not the French community in Tehran, the diplomatic source said.

French authorities have increased security for Syrian opposition members based in France who have come under threat, the interior minister said Friday.

Claude Gueant did not specify the nature of the threats or of the new security measures.

A rally on global markets stalled Thursday as euphoria over major central banks' coordinated cut to borrowing costs wore off and investors sought confirmation that European leaders will next week deliver a long-term solution to the debt crisis.

Markets had jumped on Wednesday when the central banks of Europe, the U.S., Britain, Canada, Japan and Switzerland made it cheaper for banks to borrow dollars, helping them to operate smoothly at a time of tight credit. China's central bank also acted to release money for lending and shore up growth by lowering bank reserve levels for the first time in three years.

As world leaders held frenzied talks to try to save the crisis-hit Eurozone in the south of France earlier this month, the fate of two giant pandas destined for a French zoo hung in the balance.

Negotiations had been conducted at the highest level of government in Beijing and Paris, and the deal was to have been announced at the G20 summit in the French resort of Cannes, before it was delayed by more pressing matters.

A court in France has ordered a man to pay 10,000 Euros ($13,300) in damages to his long-frustrated ex-wife after he failed in his marriage "duties" by withholding sex from her for years.

In the May ruling, published on Tuesday in the Gazette du Palais judicial review, an appeals court in the southern city of Aix-en-Provence upheld an earlier decision to award the damages for "absence of sexual relations".

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has advised the Lebanese to preserve their unity and prevent the Syrian crisis from affecting their country.

In an interview published in el-Shark newspaper on Tuesday, Juppe said all Lebanese “should focus on dialogue and work on preserving their national unity and civil peace to avoid disputes and importing them” to Lebanon.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Monday that time was running out for the regime in Syria after the Arab League agreed sweeping sanctions against Damascus over its deadly crackdown on protesters.

"Its days are numbered, that is obvious. It is totally isolated today," Juppe told France Info radio, while acknowledging that efforts to try to stem the bloodshed in Syria were moving slowly.

French military forces are training armed Syrian rebels in Turkey and Lebanon to fight the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, a Turkish newspaper has reported.

According to Milliyet, as cited by The Islamic Republic News Agency, IRNA, the French forces are training the so-called Free Syrian Army to wage war against Syria's military.

Hizbullah, Israel, Iran, and Turkey are all gearing up for an escalation in the developments in the region over the crisis in Syria, a diplomat told the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah daily in remarks published on Sunday.

He said Hizbullah is preparing for the confrontation by removing its rockets from its hideouts, noting that last week’s Siddiqin explosion took place when the party hastily set up the rockets.