France on Tuesday said it was considering lending support to life an EU arms embargo on Syria, saying the lift would help shift the balance of power away from the Assad regime. 

"France is thinking - although it is a European decision - of going further in lifting the embargo," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told a parliamentary committee.

"You will ask me is that not contradictory with finding a political solution, but we don't think so," he said.

"If we want President Bashar al Assad to shift then he must be made to understand that he cannot win through military force. There is a new balance of power that has to be created."

"We understand the idea of not adding weapons to weapons, but that position doesn't work in the face of reality it and that (reality) is that the opposition is bombarded by others who are getting weapons while they are not. It's a difficult position to keep."