The French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, said that he will push for relaxation of an EU arms embargo, to allow the arming of Syrian rebels.
France is the first Western country to recognise the Syrian opposition coalition as legitimate representatives of the Syrian people.
"For the moment, there is an embargo, so there are no arms being delivered from the European side. The issue... will no doubt be raised for defensive arms," Mr Fabius said to France's RTL radio.
"The issue will be raised because the [opposition] coalition has asked us to do so.
"This is something that we can only do in co-ordination with the Europeans"
However Russia is opposed to supporting the rebels militarily.
The foreign ministry spokesperson Aleksandr Lukashevic said that arming the opposition would be “[a] gross violation of international law".
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