Prime Minister Najib Miqati will head to Paris on January, 7 to meet with President Nicolas Sarkozy, his French counterpart Francois Fillon and other senior officials, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Tuesday.

According to the daily, the premier will discuss the latest developments in the region and Lebanon, bilateral ties and the future of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

France wants Arab League peace monitors to deploy immediately to the Syrian city of Homs, where regime forces are suppressing a popular revolt, the foreign ministry said.

"The Damascus authorities must imperatively, in accordance with the Arab League plan, allow observers access this afternoon to the city of Homs, where the violence is particularly bloody," spokesman Bernard Valero said.

An Israeli parliamentary committee is to hold a debate on Monday on recognizing genocide in Armenia, a move likely to further strain already tense relations with Turkey.

The education committee is to convene at 10 am (08:00 GMT) to discuss a proposal to mark April 24, the day when Turkish mass killings of Armenians started in 1915, as a memorial day for "the massacre of the Armenian people."

Turkey's deputy prime minister Sunday accused French President Nicolas Sarkozy of breaking a promise that the parliament would not pass a bill criminalizing the denial of genocide in Armenia.

French lawmakers voted Thursday to jail and fine anyone in France who denies that the 1915 killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide, prompting Turkey to suspend political and military cooperation with Paris.

Army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji discussed with the French chief-of-staff, Gen. Bertrand Ract-Madoux, ways to consolidate military cooperation between the two countries, the National News Agency reported on Friday.

Their meeting took place at Qahwaji’s office in Yarze. The chief-of-staff of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, Brig. Gen. Olivier de la Maisonneuve, also attended the talks.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday accused France of committing "genocide" in Algeria after French lawmakers voted a bill criminalizing the denial of Armenian genocide.

"France massacred an estimated 15 percent of the Algerian population starting from 1945. This is genocide," Erdogan told a news conference after the French move on the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman-era forces.

Turkey's ambassador to Paris returned to Ankara for consultations Friday following a vote by the French parliament to ban the denial of the Armenian genocide, an embassy spokesman said.

Tahsin Burcuoglu left from Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris with his wife on a 7:40am (06:40 GMT) flight and is expected in the Turkish capital in the afternoon, spokesman Engin Solakoglu told Agence France Presse.

The French economy grew less than first thought in the third quarter at a revised 0.3 percent, down from the initial estimate of 0.4 percent, the national statistics institute INSEE said Friday.

INSEE said the downward revision reflected lower industrial output and the inclusion of final sales figures.

France expressed regret Thursday that Turkey had withdrawn its ambassador to Paris, and called on its NATO ally not to overreact to a law to punish the denial of the Armenian genocide.

"First of all, I hope that our Turkish friends do not overreact to this decision by the French National Assembly," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told reporters in Bordeaux, the southwestern city where he is mayor.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a raft of political and military sanctions on Thursday after French lawmakers approved a bill making it a crime to deny Armenian genocide.

Turkey will recall its ambassador from Paris and suspend mutual political visits as well as joint military projects, including joint exercises, Erdogan said.