France's left-wing opposition won a historic victory in senatorial elections Sunday, in a blow to center-right leader President Nicolas Sarkozy seven months before he is to seek re-election.

The Socialist Party said that, with its Communist and Green allies, it had won enough seats to give the left control of the upper house for the first time in French history, a stepping stone towards a presidential win.

The Palestinians' attempt to get the U.N. Security Council to recognize their statehood is headed towards a "dead end", France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe warned Friday in a television interview.

Separately, Juppe's spokesman said France's suggestion that Palestine be given an intermediate status as a United Nations observer nation remained on the table, despite what he said were "Israeli reservations".

France took in 936 million euros ($1.3 billion) from the auction of frequencies to build fourth-generation mobile telephone networks, telecommunications regulator Arcep said on Thursday.

France's four network operators Orange, Bouygues Telecom, SFR and Free took the 14 lots on offer in the 2.6 gigahertz range, which are primarily for use in urban areas.

Israel on Friday rejected a proposal by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to upgrade the Palestinians' U.N. status and admit them as a non-member state, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

"This may seem like a good idea on the surface but in reality you can't cut corners by giving the Palestinians a state, however you describe it, which does not come from an agreement with Israel," Yigal Palmor told Agence France Presse.

France is to withdraw around 200 troops from its 4,000-strong force fighting as part of the NATO coalition in Afghanistan before the end of next month, the military said Thursday.

"France will pull out the equivalent of a combat company and its support elements," Colonel Thierry Burkhard, spokesman for the French military staff, told reporters in Paris, confirming part of a previously announced plan.

A French police court on Thursday issued its first fines against two women charged with wearing the full-face covering Islamic niqab.

Police have issued several on-the-spot fines since the ban came into effect in April but these are the first court-issued fines, with the women vowing to appeal their case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights.

French Ambassador to Lebanon Denis Pietton on Wednesday told Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi that the French authorities were “pleased to host him” during his recent trip to Paris.

A statement issued by the French embassy following a visit by Pietton to the seat of the Maronite church in Bkirki said the ambassador told al-Rahi his visit to France “confirms the perpetuation of a tradition that reflects the steady, immune relations with the Maronite patriarchate, which represents … an important national authority in Lebanon.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday urged the Libyan people who have been fighting a bitter conflict against Moammar Gadhafi to "have the courage to forgive."

He told a meeting at the United Nations on Libya, attended by the country's transitional leaders, that Kadhafi would eventually be tried once the fighting had stopped.

The Paris prosecutor on Tuesday asked for French former president Jacques Chirac and nine other accused to be acquitted in a graft trial relating to his time as Paris mayor.

"I seek acquittal for all the accused on all charges," prosecutor Michel Maes told the court.

Israel's consulate in the southern French port city of Marseille was temporarily evacuated Tuesday when a bomb disposal squad found a mock device placed in a van parked outside.

Police were alerted after an anonymous caller telephoned in a bomb threat, and found a pressure cooker with protruding wires and marked with a radiation warning sticker in a Renault van parked outside the Israeli mission.