Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy was to travel to Damascus later Tuesday for a two-day visit, the first voyage to Syria by a French head of state in four years.

The trip will include a summit meeting on the Mideast peace process on Thursday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Turkish President Recep Tayyid Erdogan and the Emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

Damascus  - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that "peace in the Middle East passes through France and Syria" and that his visit to Syria sent a friendship message to the Syrian people.

"Syria can present a significant help in solving issues in the Middle East," Sarkozy told the Syrian al-Watan daily Tuesday, on the eve of a high-profile visit to Damascus.

Moscow - Just hours before a European Union emergency summit on the crisis in Georgia, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy discussed the situation on the telephone, the agency Interfax reported late Sunday.

The two leaders focussed on the disputed buffer zones held by the Russian Army on Georgian territory along the two breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, according to the report from Interfax, which cited presidium officials in Moscow.

Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday said Russian troops must leave the important Black Sea port of Poti, even as he thanked his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev for keeping his commitment on the withdrawal of troops from Georgia.

The two heads of state discussed over telephone the importance of fully implementing the six-point ceasefire brokered by France, which currently holds the European Union presidency.

Kabul - French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Kabul on Wednesday to visit his country's troops and meet with his Afghan counterpart, a day after 10 French soldiers were killed and 21 were wounded in a Taliban attack.

Sarkozy visited French troops in Camp Warehouse on the eastern outskirts of Kabul Wednesday morning and paid his respects to the dead soldiers, a diplomatic source who declined to be named said.