Turkish President Abdullah Gul indicated Thursday that France will be invited to the next meeting of the "Friends of Syria" to be held in Istanbul despite a slump in ties over a genocide bill.

A distinction must be made between bilateral relations and an international conference," Gul said on a visit to Tunisia, after a Turkish diplomat said Ankara had not decided whether to invite France to the conference.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on neighboring Syria on Tuesday to allow the immediate opening of humanitarian aid corridors.

"Humanitarian aid corridors must immediately be opened," Erdogan told a parliamentary meeting of his AKP party, urging the international community to put pressure on Damascus to allow the delivery of relief supplies to civilians.

A bomb exploded Monday near the offices of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, lightly injuring one person, officials and media said.

The device, which was in a small plastic bottle, went off at around 07:30 GMT, 20 meters from the building in the central Kizilay district, one and a half hour before a cabinet meeting to be headed by Erdogan.

Syria is committing a crime by refusing aid for civilians affected by months of conflict, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Saturday, calling for an international response.

"We must defend international values ... while such atrocities continue," the Anatolia news agency quoted him as telling journalists in Istanbul.

The Syrian army launched an offensive early Saturday against rebels in the village of Ain al-Beida, not far from the border with Turkey, the Turkish news agency Anatolia reported.

It quoted witnesses as saying around 2,000 soldiers and 15 tanks were involved in the operation to seize control of the village only a few kilometers (miles) from Turkey.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to visit Iran this month, an aide said Friday, after Ankara raised the possibility of a resumption of nuclear talks between Tehran and world powers.

Erdogan is likely to visit Iran on March 28, after attending an international nuclear security summit in South Korea on March 26 and 27, the aide told Agence France Presse, without giving further details.

The cabinet is expected to tackle during its session next week a decree set to organize the country’s natural resources sector, and swiftly appoint the members of the committee tasked with administrating the oil sector.

“For the first time in history we have studies that estimate the quantities (of oil wealth in our offshores), and they are huge… They are enough to secure the future of the coming generations,” Energy Minister Jebran Bassil told As Safir newspaper on Thursday.

A remote-controlled roadside bomb wounded 16 people, mostly policemen, when it exploded near a passing police bus in the center of Istanbul on Thursday, Turkish authorities said.

"It appears to be a remote-controlled bomb that went off as a duty vehicle with 21 policemen on board drove by," Istanbul police chief Huseyin Capkin told the Anatolia news agency.

Turkey is ready to share the pain of Armenians as they prepare to mark the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide in 2015, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said.

"We want to share the pain of those who are ready to share it with us," Davutoglu was quoted as saying by Anatolia news agency in an interview with state-run television TRT Haber late Tuesday.

Moribund talks between Iran and world powers over the Islamic republic's controversial nuclear program may resume in April at the latest, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said.

"I have the belief that the negotiations ... might take place in a month's time, in April at the latest," Davutoglu was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency, citing an interview with state-run TRT Haber late Tuesday.