PARIS: French President Francois Hollande will hold talks on Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of his diplomatic marathon to forge a broad coalition against the militant Islamic State (IS) group in the wake of the Paris attacks.

The French President met Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in Paris early Thursday and will later head to Moscow.

Hollande has been on a whirlwind tour seeking to build a coalition to crush IS in Iraq and Syria but has won few concrete pledges so far, and his campaign has been further complicated by a spat between Russia and Turkey over the shooting down of a Russian jet.

Renzi offered only vague support for "a coalition of greater and greater strength that is up to the task of Daesh's destruction," using another name for IS.

France invoked a clause requiring European Union (EU) member states to provide military assistance after the November 13 attacks in Paris, when 130 people lost their lives in a wave of killings by suicide bombers and gunmen, in an attack claimed by IS.

Read: At least 128 dead in Paris terror attacks, IS claims responsibility

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday pledged to stand beside France after talks with Hollande, saying she would act "swiftly" to see how her country can help in the fight against terrorism.

The French and German leaders each laid a pink rose among the tributes of flowers and candles in Place de la Republique, the Paris square that has become a rallying point since the bloodshed.

In Berlin, Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Germany would send 650 soldiers to Mali to provide some relief to French forces fighting militants there.

Meanwhile in Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron will set out the case for his country to extend its air strikes against IS from Iraq into Syria ahead of a vote by MPs next week.

The British premier has called IS a "direct threat to our security at home and abroad."

He met Hollande on Monday and offered France the use of a British air base in Cyprus for flying missions against the militants.

While Cameron said he "firmly supported" the French leader, Hollande got a cooler response from United States (US) President Barack Obama, who is reluctant to intensify military action without a clear strategy or political track in place.

Hollande courts Russia

Hollande's diplomatic efforts also suffered a blow after Turkey shot down a Russian jet on Tuesday.

Turkey's military said the following day it did not know the jet was Russian and that it was ready for "all kinds of cooperation" with Russia, after Moscow called the incident a "planned provocation."

The sole surviving pilot said he received no warning and the aircraft did not violate Turkish air space, but the Turkish military released audio recordings claiming to show the Russian jet was repeatedly warned to change course.

Moscow has intensified its strikes in Syria after IS claimed it brought down a Russian passenger plane over Egypt last month, killing all 224 people on board.

Russia carried out heavy raids in Syria's northern Latakia province on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) monitoring group said, in the same area where Turkey downed the Russian bomber.

Ankara and Moscow have backed opposing forces in the four-year Syrian conflict, with Turkey supporting rebel groups opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, while Russia is one of his last remaining allies.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has backed the French president's proposal to close off the Syria-Turkey border, considered the main crossing point for foreign fighters seeking to join IS.

"I think this is a good proposal and tomorrow President Hollande will talk to us in greater detail about it. We would be ready to seriously consider the necessary measures for this," Lavrov said.

French jets on Monday launched their first air strikes from the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Manuel Valls told parliament, which overwhelmingly supported intensifying the air campaign against IS, that "there is no alternative, we must annihilate Daesh."

Russia tightens control over Turkish food imports: minister

Russia said on Thursday that it would reinforce control over Turkish food imports citing frequent violations of safety standards, as tensions surged with Ankara over the downing of a Russian warplane on the Syrian border.

Some 15 per cent of Turkish agricultural produce does not meet Russian standards with levels of pesticides, nitrates and nitrites considerably above safe limits, Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev said.

"Taking into account repeated violations by Turkish producers of Russian norms, the Russian government has tasked the food safety agency Rosselkhoznadzor with reinforcing control over supplies of agricultural produce and food from Turkey," Tkachev said.

Russia will "organise additional checks at the border and at food production sites in Turkey," he said.

Russia has found "traces of banned and harmful substances" in Turkish food products of animal origin some 40 times this year, Tkachev added.

Over the past 10 months Turkey imported agricultural produce and food worth just over $1 billion to Russia, down 21.2pc compared to the same period last year.

Turkish vegetables account for some 20pc of vegetables imports to Russia, said Tkachev, adding that Moscow could opt to buy produce from other countries, such as tomatoes from Iran, Israel, Morocco, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.

Turkey also accounts for a quarter of Russian citrus fruit imports, he said, adding that the country could switch to other producers including South Africa, China, Argentina and Georgia.

Russia also said it could redirect its Turkish exports including wheat and oil to countries in the Middle East and Africa.

Over the past 10 months, Russian exports to Turkey amounted to $1.3 billion.

Russia is pulling out all the stops in response to Turkey shooting down its military plane.

While ruling out military retaliation against Ankara, officials have promised a barrage of economic and political measures.

Russian President Vladimir Putin branded the incident a "stab in the back" and warned Russians against travelling to Turkey, a hugely popular tourist destination.

On Wednesday, Russian lawmakers introduced a bill calling for a maximum punishment of five years in jail for those who deny that the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turkey in 1915 was a genocide.