Paris, Dec. 16: French President Nicholas Sarkozy on Monday escaped an attempt on his life, when a man armed with a knife and Taser stun gun was arrested.

According to The Sun, police wrestled the 25-year-old to the ground as he tried to break into the Elysee Palace, the French President's official residence. Cops found the weapons inside his military-style jacket.

Sarkozy was inside at the time, meeting Montenegro's Premier Milo Djukanovic.

His security guards are treating the lunchtime incident as an attempt on his life.

Beirut  - French president Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to visit Lebanon but will not visit neighboring Syria, Lebanese governmental sources said Monday.

Sarkozy's visit would include a single meeting with President Michel Suleiman and a trip to meet with the French contingent in UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, on New Year's day.

Paris  - An international conference on Afghanistan began near Paris Sunday without representation from Iran.

According to French media reports, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki decided shortly before the conference's start not to attend. French sources further noted that no representative of Mottaki had shown.

Tensions between Iran and France, which is hosting the conference, have been building in recent weeks after French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he would neither offer his hand to or share a table with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad owing to Ahmadinejad's antipathy toward Israel.

Iran responded to those comments with warnings of "serious consequences for bilateral relations."

Podgorica - Montenegro will begin the process of applying for membership of the European Union on Monday, local media reported Friday.

"Montenegro believes in European ideals" and this decision is the "beginning of most important and demanding phase that precedes the full membership of Montenegro in the European Union, " the government said in a statement.

Montenegro will hand in its application in Paris during the meeting of Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic and French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Paris  -

Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that he would not accept any watering down of his ambitious climate package at this week's EU summit, the head of the centre-left faction in the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

During a meeting with a group of EU parliamentarians in Paris, the serving EU president said that negotiations over the package would not result in "a compromise at any cost."