Syria's state-run newspaper Wednesday criticized French President Nicolas Sarkozy for branding Hezbollah as a "terrorist organization."

Sarkozy, in a meeting Monday with the families of three abducted Israel Defense Forces soldiers, including two seized by the Shiite group last summer, expressed the view that Hezbollah needed to renounce terrorism.

Referring to Hezbollah, the Syrian "Tishrin" newspaper, in its editorial Wednesday, posed the question, "How are concepts and principles turned upside down and those who struggle for freedom and independence are turned into terrorists?"

	Advertisement

The newspaper urged France to play an "honest and even-handed" role in the region, saying that a bias against Hezbollah as a player in Lebanese politics was an "incorrect choice."

Tishrin added that "hopes are still pinned on France to put things back on their right course."

France has invited members of Hezbollah to participate in a conference of 14 Lebanese factions in Paris this weekend to address the country's political deadlock.

Sarkozy told the soldiers' families Monday he would use all the power at his disposal to return the three servicemen home safely.

The French president spoke in depth on the matter of Gilad Shalit who holds joint Israeli and French citizenship, saying he considers the IDF Corporal kidnapped by Hamas over a year ago to be a fully fledged French national.

"He promised us that he's doing all the efforts he can in this matter," Gilad Shalit's father, Noam Shalit, said in English after the meeting. "He considers my son as a French citizen as well as an Israeli soldier.

The President added that as such, he would involve himself in talks with Palestinian authorities to secure Shalit's return as soon as possible.

Addressing the issue of IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Udi Goldwasser who were abducted by Hezbollah last summer in a move that sparked the Second Lebanon War, Sarkozy said he considers Hezbollah to be a terrorist organization.

He said his estimation of Hezbollah has not changed despite his government's issuing of permission of members of the Islamic group to visit France for talks with rival Lebanese factions on the future of the Middle Eastern country.

He pledged to the families to raise the issue of the abducted soldiers with Lebanese representatives when they next met.

Family members of the abducted soldiers called the meeting "very positive," and expressed hope that France would use its clout in the Middle East, particularly in the Lebanese and Palestinian arenas, to expedite the return of their loved ones from captivity.

A meeting between the delegation of family members and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kushner is scheduled later Monday.