Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat and his son Taymour are expected to meet with French President Francois Hollande next week, pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported on Friday.

The newspaper said that the meeting is set to take place at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Monday afternoon.

Three young men, including a former naval signalman, were being held Thursday by France's intelligence services, accused of plotting to kidnap and decapitate a member of the armed forces at a military base.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said security forces staged dawn raids on Monday and arrested four people, aged between 16 and 23, who were "planning to commit a terrorist act" at a French military installation.

France thwarted "terrorist attacks" this week, French President Francois Hollande said on Wednesday.

"This week, we stopped terrorist attacks which could have taken place," Hollande said on trip to Marseille alongside Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, adding that the interior ministry would issue a statement on Thursday.

French MPs overwhelmingly backed the new Greek bailout agreement on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Manuel Valls saying it was the only route out of the crisis. 

The French lower house National Assembly backed the agreement by 412 votes to 69, shortly followed by the upper house Senate, which supported the bill by 260 votes to 23.

Two blasts at a petrochemical plant in France appear to have been a "criminal act" but investigators have been unable to pin down a motive, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Wednesday.

"There is a probe underway. The first indications show that we are dealing with a criminal act, but no motive has been established," Cazeneuve told the lower house of parliament.

France's foreign minister said Wednesday he had accepted an invitation to visit Iran after the historic deal on its nuclear program but did not give a date for the trip.

Laurent Fabius said his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif had "reinvited" him as the deal was clinched on Tuesday. 

Two explosions which sparked huge fires at a petrochemical plant in southern France early Tuesday are believed to have been the result of a "malicious act", sources said.

Police said no-one was injured in the explosions that happened in Berre-l'Etang near Marseille-Marignane airport at 3:00 am (0100 GMT).

French ambassador to Lebanon Patrice Paoli stated on Tuesday that the international agreement to preserve Lebanon's stability can only be achieved through Lebanon's army and security forces, As Safir daily reported.

“There is no such thing as an international umbrella and we have never said that. In reality there is an international understanding U.N. Security Council to preserve Lebanon's stability,” said Paoli in an interview to the daily.

Iran and major powers headed into another late night of talks Monday on a deal to rein in Tehran's nuclear ambitions, as negotiators struggled to overcome the remaining few obstacles.

The White House said the marathon discussions in Vienna had "made genuine progress" but suggested they would stretch beyond a Monday night deadline.

Mexico's president on Monday began a state visit to France amid criticism of the rights situation in his country and drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's brazen escape from jail.

Enrique Pena Nieto arrived in Paris on Sunday to news that Guzman had escaped a maximum-security prison through a tunnel under his cell's shower, the second time in 14 years that the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel has fled jail.