France's Socialist government is to face a no-confidence vote on Thursday after it bypassed parliament and rammed through a labor reform bill that has sparked two months of massive street protests.

The team of embattled President Francois Hollande resorted to the controversial maneuver on Tuesday in the face of fierce opposition from within his own party that doomed the bill in parliament.

Two former Rwandan mayors go on trial in France Tuesday facing charges of crimes against humanity and genocide over the 1994 massacres in the central African country.

The second trial in Paris by a special court created to go after suspected Rwandan killers who fled to France is expected to lay bare the strained relations between the two countries.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi helds talks Monday in Paris with French President Francois Hollande and talks tackled the issues of Lebanon's presidential void and the Syrian refugee crisis.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi traveled to France on Saturday as part of a pastoral visit, reported the National News Agency.

It said that the trip to Paris will last about a week.

Four suspected people smugglers whose car was involved in a collision with a lorry after a high-speed police chase in northern France are Iraqi Kurds, prosecutors said Friday.

The British-registered Audi had crossed into France from Belgium on Thursday after police tried to check their vehicle at a parking area known to be used by smugglers.

The first round of France's presidential election has been set for April 23 next year and the second round for May 7, government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said Wednesday, with legislative elections to follow in June 2017.

Embattled Socialist President Francois Hollande has an approval rating of 13 percent, and all voter surveys predict a first-round loss for the most unpopular president in modern French history.

Police used tear gas on Wednesday to disperse protesters as they evacuated a high school under renovation in Paris that has been occupied by migrants for two weeks.

Protesters, some masked and hooded, had formed a human chain around the high school in the north of the French capital to try to prevent police entering in the early morning raid.

France braced Sunday for violence at May Day rallies where workers are fired up over labor reforms, while similar fears of eroding rights sent tens of thousands into the streets of South Korea.

From Moscow to Marseille, protests were expected in cities across the globe to celebrate Labor Day as the working classes battle economic crises and unemployment that have fueled anti-government sentiment.

France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls will make a surprise visit to Australia for talks with Malcolm Turnbull after a French shipbuilder won a huge submarine contract, officials said Sunday.

Contractor DCNS beat off competition from Japan and Germany to seal the Aus$50 billion ($39 billion) deal to design and construct 12 new conventionally-powered subs.

Israel on Thursday reiterated its opposition to a planned French peace conference, calling instead for direct and unconditional negotiations with the Palestinians.

"The best way to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is direct, bilateral negotiations," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.