French FM says 'more necessary than ever' to coordinate anti-terror fight

The Paris attacks show it is more vital than ever to coordinate global efforts to fight terrorism, France's foreign minister said Saturday, vowing that French "international action" will not stop, AFP reports.

"It is more necessary than ever in the current circumstances to coordinate the international fight against terrorism," Laurent Fabius said in Vienna at talks on ending the Syrian civil war.

"And one of the aims of the meeting today in Vienna is exactly to see concretely how we can further increase the international coordination in the struggle against Daesh," Fabius told reporters, referring to the Islamic State jihadist group which has overrun swathes of Syria and Iraq.

He added that in spite of the attacks "international action by France will continue."

Witnesses said that the gunmen who killed 127 people in Friday's wave of attacks shouted "Allahu akbar" ("God is greatest") and blamed France's military intervention in Syria against Islamic State (IS) extremists.

The talks in Vienna involving some 20 countries and international organisations -- but no Syrian representatives -- aim at working out a roadmap to end the country's bloody civil war after almost five years of combat.

But there are deep divisions, notably between Iran and Russia on one side and Western and Arab nations on the other, on the future of President Bashar al-Assad and which opposition groups to back.