John Kerry
John KerryReuters

Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Paris on Monday for talks after the attacks on the French capital, vowing to defeat terrorism as he stood before the American embassy lit up in the colors of the French flag.

"The United States and France are not only friends -- we are family," declared Kerry, who is due to meet French President Francois Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Tuesday.

Kerry, who speaks fluent French, vowed, "We will defeat Daesh (the Islamic State or ISIS) and all who share their despicable ideology, and we will continue to show compassion to those who seek refuge from the violence the terrorists engender.

"We will fight to ensure the world our children inherit is rich in love and short on hate," added Kerry.

He described the ISIS jihadists, who have claimed responsibility for France's worst ever terror attacks which killed 129 people, as "psychopathic monsters".

Kerry said the attacks had not changed plans by American officials, including  President Barack Obama, to attend a global climate summit in Paris at the end of the month.

"We will not change our course or cancel our plans, including our plans to come together in Paris later this month for the UN climate conference," he stated.

"And President Obama told me today how much he looks forward to being here and being part of that important moment."

Kerry, who has visited Paris at least 20 times as secretary of state, expressed his solidarity with "the oldest ally" of the U.S. over the weekend.

The two countries have reaffirmed their military cooperation, with Obama saying Monday that a new agreement had been forged on intelligence-sharing for air strikes in Syria.

Neither Kerry nor Obama joined the public march in Paris in the wake of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in January, despite visits from numerous world leaders.

American officials said Kerry would not visit the sites of Friday's attacks for security reasons.

Obama said earlier on Monday that the United States had no precise intelligence warning of the Paris bombing and shooting attacks that have been claimed by ISIS.

The United States has agreed to speed up its sharing of military intelligence with France to try to avert such assaults, he added in a news conference after a summit in Turkey.

On Sunday night, two days after the attack in Paris, French warplanes pounded the city of Raqa, ISIS’s self-proclaimed “capital” in Syria, destroying a command post and a training camp.

French President Francois Hollande on Saturday blamed the Islamic State group for the gun and suicide attacks that left at least 129 dead in Paris on Friday, calling them an "act of war".

And later, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that his country needed to scale up military operations in Syria in order to “annihilate” ISIS.

“Our action in Syria … needs to be extended to annihilate Daesh,” Valls told TF1 television, adding, “The enemy is ISIS.”

AFP contributed to this story.