U.S. intelligence spied on former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder from 2002, NDR television reported Tuesday, adding fuel to the flames of a row over spying on incumbent Angela Merkel.

Schroeder, the Social Democrat chancellor who served from 1998 to 2005, appears on a list of names of people and institutions put under surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) from 2002, at the start of his second mandate as German head of state.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Tuesday after talks with the visiting Turkish prime minister for a more united U.N. Security Council response to the "inconceivable" humanitarian plight of Syrian refugees.

Talks with Russia and China should be held as well as with non-Security Council member Iran to help people fleeing the nearly three-year-old conflict, Merkel told a joint press conference with Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Germany Tuesday to step up support for Turkey's European Union entry bid but acknowledged his country must also press on with reforms.

Erdogan told a Berlin think tank on a visit to Europe's top economy that the EU could also benefit from Turkey's presence at the bloc's table such as in regional conflict resolution.

A German citizen snatched from the Yemeni capital is being held in a tribal region to the east, a foreign ministry official told Agence France Presse Sunday.

The man in his 60s was kidnapped Friday by a tribesman pressing authorities to release his two detained sons, the official said, adding that the German is being held in Marib province.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius assured on Saturday that an international conference will take place in Paris in March to help Lebanon deal with the repercussions of the Syrian crisis.

"France is determined to go forward with what was agreed on before through holding an international conference in early March to help Lebanon overcome its current political and economic difficulties,” Fabius said after meeting with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati in Germany's Munich.

Caretaker Najib Miqati lamented on Saturday the current state of affairs in Lebanon given that it is suffering from the impact of the Syrian crisis.

Commenting on claims that he has become a target for assassination, he said: “I am performing my national duties and what pleases my conscience.”

German President Joachim Gauck opened an international security meeting Friday with an appeal for his country to play a greater role on the world stage and in tackling global trouble spots.

"Germany should engage as a good partner earlier, more decisively and more substantially," he told hundreds of political, diplomatic and defense leaders at the Munich Security Conference (MSC).

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will travel to Israel for bilateral talks at the end of February, accompanied by a number of her ministers, a spokesman said on Friday.

The visit will take place February 24 and 25, spokesman Georg Streiter told a regular news briefing, without revealing a detailed agenda.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged Friday that relations with Germany had gone through a "rough period" over NSA snooping but said that shared interests would help put ties back on track.

In Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and his counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Kerry said the United States took Germany's anger over revelations that U.S. intelligence monitored Merkel's mobile phone seriously.

Most Germans oppose a bigger role for their military in the world's trouble spots despite a push by the country's new defense minister, a poll released Friday indicated.

Asked whether they would support more deployments of Bundeswehr forces to crisis regions, 61 percent said "no" versus 30 percent who would back such moves, according to the poll for ARD public television.