French President Francois Hollande and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani discussed the war in Syria by telephone on Tuesday, in the wake of a devastating attack on Paris by Islamic State jihadists.

The two leaders highlighted the importance of the Vienna process to end the nearly five-year war, after global diplomats on Saturday agreed on a fixed calendar for Syria to move towards elections in 18 months.

A passport found near the body of one of the Stade de France suicide bombers may have belonged to a Syrian regime soldier killed several months ago, a source close to the investigation told AFP.

The passport is in the name of Ahmad al-Mohammad, born September 10, 1990 in the Syrian city of Idlib.

European Union defense ministers on Tuesday unanimously backed France's request for help with military missions in the wake of the Paris attacks, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.

"France has requested aid and assistance in accordance with article 42-7. It's an article that has never been used before in the history of our union," Mogherini said, referring to part of the EU treaties that provides for solidarity of member states in the event one of them is attacked.

French police launched dozens of fresh raids across the country Tuesday as warplanes strafed the Syrian stronghold of Islamic State jihadists which France has vowed to destroy after their attack on Paris.

Authorities in France and Belgium stepped up the hunt for more gunmen and possible accomplices to the shootings and suicide  bombings on bars, restaurants and a sports stadium that killed 129 mostly young people on Friday night.

Investigators probing the deadly Paris attacks have so far identified five of seven gunmen and suicide bombers whose bodies were found at three sites across the city, while the hunt is on for others.

Here is a look at the men behind France's worst-ever terror attacks, which struck a concert venue, bars, restaurants and a stadium.

France's president said Monday its Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier would be deployed to the eastern Mediterranean to boost operations in Syria as Paris intensifies a bombing campaign against the Islamic State group there.

The latest move follows attacks in the French capital, claimed by the jihadist group, which left 129 people dead and hundreds more wounded.

President Francois Hollande said Monday France would step up the battle against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria in the wake of Paris attacks he dubbed "acts of war."

Hollande told an exceptional meeting of both houses of parliament he would meet U.S. President Barack Obama and Russia's Vladimir Putin in the coming days and called for a U.N. Security Council meeting over the fight against IS jihadists.

Belgium on Monday charged two people with involvement in terrorism after they were arrested over the Paris attacks, as a major police operation in Brussels failed to nab a key suspect.

The charges came as French President Francois Hollande said that Friday's attacks in which 129 people were killed were planned in Syria but launched from Belgium, with French help.

One of the suicide bombers in the Paris attacks had links to a Belgian Islamic State militant believed to be the mastermind of a jihadist cell dismantled in January, a report said on Monday.

The name of Paris attacker Brahim Abdeslam appears in several police files alongside leading militant Abdelhamid Abaaoud relating to criminal cases in 2010 and 2011, Flemish-language newspaper De Standaard reported.

"Why are the people crying, Mummy?" a little girl out for a Sunday afternoon cycle with her parents asked, as she passed the crowds gathered on the street corner where the killing began in central Paris.

"They are very sad," her mother said as she tried to navigate the groups standing silently and awkwardly facing the Petit Cambodge restaurant and the Carillon cafe, trying not to look at the patches of bloodstained sand on the pavement where the 14 people who died there fell.