John Irish

His statement prompted Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the Kremlin to list their conditions.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will travel to Paris to attend the re-opening of Notre-Dame cathedral on Saturday, and could use the trip to hold talks with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, two diplomatic sources said.

Iran is "dramatically" accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% level that is weapons grade, U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told Reuters on Friday.

France said on Friday it took note of a decision by Chad to end its defence cooperation with Paris and would now work with it to implement the decision, the foreign ministry said.

European and Iranian diplomats meet on Friday to discuss whether they can engage in serious talks in the coming weeks to defuse tensions in the region, including over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme, before Donald Trump's return to the White House.

A French plan to significantly reduce its military presence in West and central Africa risks backfiring and further diminishing the former colonial power's influence in the region at a time when Russia is gaining ground.

European and Iranian officials made little progress in meetings on Friday on whether they could engage in serious talks, including over Iran's disputed nuclear programme, before Donald Trump returns to the White House in January, diplomats said.

Soldiers scramble through trenches under a haze of yellow smoke, machine gunfire booms across the fields, invisible drones buzz overhead and voices scream in Ukrainian "Watch out!"

Russia's growing economic and military cooperation with China, North Korea and Iran is threatening Europe, the Indo-Pacific and North America, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Tuesday.

France's foreign ministry summoned North Korea's general delegate in France last week to protest against the deployment of his country's troops to Russia and warned there would be consequences.