Kerry to meet Hollande in Paris in wake of attacks

US faced criticism after it failed to send a senior official to the rally in Paris attended by dozens of world leaders

PARIS: US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet French President Francois Hollande on Friday to discuss the militant attacks that left 17 people dead last week in France.

The United States faced criticism after it failed to send a senior official to the massive rally in Paris on Sunday attended by dozens of world leaders condemning the bloodshed.

The White House admitted the lack of American leaders at the march, which was attended by the US ambassador to France, was a mistake.

However Kerry, who speaks French and has visited France 15 times since becoming secretary of state, defended the level of the US presence.

"This is sort of quibbling," Kerry told reporters on a visit to India on Monday. "The relationship with France is not about one day or one particular moment."

Friday's meeting comes as France is reeling from the assault on satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo by gunmen that killed 12 people as well as attacks that killed a policewoman and four people at a kosher supermarket in Paris.

"We stand together not just in anger and outrage but in solidarity and commitment in confronting extremism and in the cause that extremists fear so much, and that has always united our countries. Freedom," Kerry said Sunday.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday the country was "at war against terrorism, jihadism, radicalism", in remarks reminiscent of former US president George W. Bush's declaration of war against terrorists after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

Kerry is currently in Geneva for talks with his Iranian counterpart in an effort to speed up dragging negotiations on a ground-breaking deal to rein in Iran's nuclear programme.