Jacques Chirac's embezzlement trial opened Monday with the 78-year-old former French president absent after a medical report said he suffered from memory loss and was too unwell to attend.

"Absent," came the reply when the presiding judge called out his name at the start of a trial that should have seen the first French former head of state in the dock since World War II.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed on Monday the church’s opposition to war and violence, saying that it supports regimes that respect human rights that ensure that citizens can live in peace.

He made his statements after holding talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace as part of his ongoing trip to France that he began on Saturday.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, his hopes for the French presidency scuppered by a sensational New York sex scandal, returned to Paris Sunday to a media frenzy and an uneasy welcome from his Socialist allies.

The former IMF chief and his journalist wife Anne Sinclair arrived at dawn at Charles de Gaulle airport on an Air France flight and were whisked off in a black Peugeot to their apartment in the chic Place des Vosges.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi noted Sunday that his visit to France, where he arrived Saturday, will allow him to “meet with the top officials of the French administration, in order to analyze together Lebanon’s problems and the changes currently affecting the geopolitical structures of some Middle Eastern nations.”

“These changes are still confusing and preoccupying us, especially that the outcome is still unknown,” al-Rahi said in a sermon at the Our Lady of Lebanon Church in Paris.

Former French president Jacques Chirac will not attend his corruption trial opening in Paris on Monday on medical grounds, his lawyers said Saturday.

At Chirac's request, the lawyers said, they submitted a letter from their client to the presiding judge on Friday, together with a copy of his medical file.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi described the Lebanese army on Saturday as Lebanon’s backbone saying the country has no pride or dignity without a strong army.

In remarks at Beirut airport before traveling to Paris on an official visit, al-Rahi said: “The army is Lebanon’s backbone, it is Lebanese pride and honor.”

President Michel Suleiman stressed on Friday the importance of Lebanon’s implementation of United Nations Security Council resolution 1701.

He said after holding talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi: “Lebanon is keen on the safety of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.”

Premier Najib Miqati has reiterated his “strong willingness that France keeps its forces” as part of the UNIFIL mission and vowed to work on preventing further attacks on peacekeepers.

In a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Miqati said that Lebanon is keen on implementing U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 and consolidating the ties between the Lebanese army and foreign troops.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Wednesday that Iran's alleged attempts to build long-range missiles and nuclear weapons could lead unnamed countries to launch a pre-emptive attack.

"Its military nuclear and ballistic ambitions constitute a growing threat that may lead to a preventive attack against Iranian sites that would provoke a major crisis that France wants to avoid at all costs," he said.

President Nicolas Sarkozy's office defended on Wednesday a Libyan rebel commander who once reportedly led a jihadi group with ties to al-Qaida, insisting Libya's revolution is not led by Islamists.

A senior official in the Elysee told Agence France Presse that Sarkozy's senior own military aide had met Adbul Hakim Belhadj, the rebel commander who led the assault on Moammar Gadhafi's bunker complex, and had no concerns about his affiliations.