Who strikes and where? Who provides the weapons? Who provides the intelligence? And who provides the cash?

The international conference in Paris on Monday that gathers some 20 countries from the anti-Islamic State coalition will seek to divide up the roles between nations with often diverging interests.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly held talks on the situation in Lebanon with Iranian officials in Tehran during a two visit, announced his press office on Sunday.

Plumbly met with Advisor on International Affairs to the Supreme Leader Ali Akbar Velayati and Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hossein Amir-Abdollahian during the visit that spanned the weekend.

A Syrian air strike on an Islamic State (IS) training camp in the jihadist-held east killed 17 militants and a child, a monitoring group said in a new toll Sunday.

The Saturday strike hit dormitories in the camp in the Euphrates valley town of Tibni in Deir Ezzor province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Around 930 French citizens or residents, including at least 60 women, are either actively engaged in jihad in Iraq and Syria or are planning to go there, the interior minister said Sunday.

In an interview with Le Journal de Dimanche weekly, Bernard Cazeneuve said: "930 French citizens or foreigners usually resident in France are today involved in jihad in Iraq and Syria."

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Sunday Australia would deploy 600 troops to the United Arab Emirates to join the U.S.-led international coalition gearing up for war against Islamic State jihadists.

Abbott's announcement comes two days after Canberra lifted its terror alert level to "high" on growing concern about Australian jihadists returning from fighting in Iraq and Syria.

The Islamic State claimed the beheading of a British aid worker on Saturday, an act slammed as "pure evil" by Prime Minister David Cameron who vowed Britain would do all it could to catch the killers.

President Barack Obama offered U.S. support for its "ally in grief", while Cameron faced growing calls to allow Britain's military to help in Washington's planned assault against the rampaging jihadist group.

Syrian fighter jets shelled overnight the al-Malahi region neat the Bekaa region of Arsal, reported Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) on Sunday.

It said that the shelling targeted a tunnel leading to the Wadi Hmeid region.

The family of British aid worker David Haines, threatened with death by Islamic State militants in a recent video, has appealed to his captors to contact them.

A man who staged a sick prank by filming himself threatening to behead three Syrian refugee children has confessed that he was amused by their weeping and their mother actually loved the video, a police statement said on Saturday.

Meanwhile, a security official told Agence France-Presse that the video proved to be a "sick joke," and that the children had been left in the man's care by their mother, his neighbor, while she went to buy groceries.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Egypt was on the frontline of fighting "terrorism" as he sought Cairo's support for a coalition against Islamic State jihadists.

"Egypt is on the frontline of the fight against terrorism, particularly when it comes to fighting extremist groups in Sinai," Kerry told a press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri.