French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Saturday that all indications show the Syrian government was behind a "chemical massacre" near Damascus that the opposition claims killed hundreds of people.

"All the information at our disposal converges to indicate that there was a chemical massacre near Damascus and that the Bashar regime is responsible," Fabius said on a visit to Ramallah in the West Bank.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius will visit Israel and the Palestinian territories this weekend to encourage recently resumed peace talks, his office said Friday.

Fabius will meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and prime minister Rami Hamdallah in Ramallah on Saturday.

The use of chemical weapons in Syria would constitute a "crime against humanity", U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said Friday, adding there was "no time to lose" in investigating an alleged attack which the opposition says killed hundreds.

Ban described reports of the incident near Damascus on Wednesday as "very alarming and shocking" and urged the regime to allow a United Nations inspection team, already on the ground in Syria, to begin a probe without delay.

A Congolese general wanted in connection with the 1999 disappearance of 350 refugees was arrested in France on Thursday and charged with crimes against humanity, a court source said.

Norbert Dabira, 64, was accused of torture and kidnapping on a massive scale by examining magistrates in a Paris court after being arrested in the town of Torcy near Paris.

French President Francois Hollande on Thursday denounced the "likely" use of chemical weapons in Syria in telephone talks with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

In a statement, Hollande's office said that in a telephone conversation with Ban, the president had noted "the shock caused in France by the massacres carried out in Syria on the night of August 20-21 and the likely use of chemical weapons."

An Al-Qaida-linked militia founded by wanted Islamist commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar announced on Thursday it had joined forces with another armed group to take revenge against France for its military offensive in Mali.

Belmokhtar's Mauritania-based Al-Mulathameen Brigade (The Brigade of the Masked Ones) and the Mali-based Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) said they had joined forces under a single banner to unite Muslims across the region.

France is seeking a reaction with "force" if a massacre in Syria involving chemical weapons is confirmed, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Thursday, although he ruled out the use of ground troops.

"If it is proven, France's position is that there must be a reaction, a reaction that could take the form of a reaction with force," Fabius told BFM-TV.

France is pushing for holding an international meeting on Lebanon in September given the rising security and political challenges in the country, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Thursday.

An informed French source told the daily: “France is persuading friendly nations to hold a meeting on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly to help Lebanon and provide political support to President Michel Suleiman.”

French prosecutors have launched an investigation after a video showing a police officer beating a black woman with a baton and spraying tear gas directly into her face sparked outrage.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday that prosecutors in the central city of Tours had ordered the IGPN police internal affairs branch to investigate after the video, called "Shame on the French police", was posted on the Internet on Sunday.

Saudi Arabia said on Monday that Arab and Islamic countries will step in to help Egypt if Western nations cut aid packages to Cairo over its deadly crackdown on Islamist protesters.

"To those who have announced they are cutting their aid to Egypt, or threatening to do that, (we say that) Arab and Muslim nations are rich... and will not hesitate to help Egypt," Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in a statement carried by the kingdom's SPA state news agency.