Next 'Friends of Syria' Meet on July 6 in Paris

The next meeting of the Friends of Syria group will take place on July 6 in Paris, the French foreign ministry said Thursday.

The ministry confirmed the date after French President Francois Hollande last month announced the next meeting of the group would take place in Paris next month.

The group seeks to co-ordinate Western and Arab efforts to stop the violence in Syria.

"The meeting of the Friends of the Syrian People group will mobilize all states and organizations that want to support the Syrian people as the humanitarian and security situation worsens and repression continues," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

The meeting will be the third such gathering after one in Tunis in February and another on April 1 in Istanbul called for tougher action against the Assad regime.

The United States, France, Britain, Germany, and Arab nations Saudi Arabia and Qatar are leading members of the Friends, whose more than 60 members include most of the EU member states and many members of the Arab League.

Neither China nor Russia, who have done the most to defend the Syrian regime on the international stage, attended the first two meetings.

U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan is set to address the United Nations General Assembly later Thursday and then the Security Council about the situation in Syria.

Annan is considering proposing that Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia join the permanent members of the Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- in a so-called Contact Group aimed at increasing pressure on Assad, Le Monde and the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Russia this week backed calls for the creation of such a group.