The Turkish ambassador to France, Tahsin Burcuoglu, has returned to Paris after consultations over French legislation that would outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide, an official said Sunday.

"The ambassador has finished the consultations for which he was recalled and returned to France on Saturday," Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal told Agence France Presse.

Lebanon aims to invite tenders to explore for offshore gas within three months, the energy minister said on Sunday, downplaying the risk of conflict with Israel despite a dispute over the maritime border.

"Our target is to begin within three months," Energy Minister Jebran Bassil told Agence France Presse.

Turkish hackers are threatening to unleash a wave of cyber-attacks against French websites after legislators in Paris voted to approve a law that would ban the denial of the Armenian genocide.

Already, hackers have assailed dozens of French websites, including that of Valerie Boyer, the French politician who introduced the law that could punish genocide deniers with jail time.

Turkey's former army chief Ilker Basbug was arrested Friday over an alleged bid to topple the Islamist-rooted government, the Anatolia news agency reported on Friday.

"The 26th chief of staff of the Turkish republic has unfortunately been placed in preventive detention for setting up and leading a terrorist group and of attempting to overthrow the government," Ilkay Sezer, a lawyer for Basbug, was quoted as saying by Anatolia.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss regional security, including Iraq's political crisis, the White House said Thursday.

The call followed up on Biden's visit to Turkey in December, and included an undertaking to work to support the rule of law and encourage democracy in the region, the White House said in a statement.

Lebanon and Cyprus will hold talks to follow up discussions on demarcating the maritime border, As Safir newspaper reported on Friday.

The meeting, which will be held “soon” according to the daily, will tackle the Israeli-Cypriot discussions to correct the errors in the agreement between the two sides, which “harms” Lebanon.

Iran's foreign minister said Thursday he would like to see talks with world powers on his country's nuclear program resume in Turkey, but was waiting for a venue and date to be agreed.

"Personally I think that Turkey is the best place for the talks to take place. But it should be at a place of mutual agreement," Ali Akbar Salehi said in a televised joint news conference with visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Turkey will buy a first batch of two F-35A Joint Strike Fighters as a sign of its commitment to the troubled U.S.-led program, the government's defense procurement agency said on Thursday.

A statement said the government had authorized the order to meet the future needs of the Turkish air force for next-generation fighter planes.

Turkey may step up action against France if the French Senate votes this month to outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide, a Turkish diplomatic source said Thursday.

"There may be a downgrading of the Turkish diplomatic representation in Paris. It is probable," if the upper house of parliament approves the bill criminalizing denial of the disputed 1915 genocide, the source told Agence France Presse.

France's upper house of parliament will vote this month on a bill to outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide, a government official told Agence France Presse, despite a furious diplomatic spat with Turkey.

The French lower house approved the law last month, threatening anyone who denies that the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide with jail, drawing a threat of sanctions from Turkey.