The FINANCIAL -- France's new Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius welcomed an agreement Monday to impose fresh EU sanctions against Syria but called on the 27-nation bloc "to go further".

"I'm satisfied that these new sanctions have been adopted but I would like to go further," Fabius told a news conference held during talks between European Union foreign ministers.

According to EUbusiness, the French minister, attending his first such talks since being handed the foreign affairs portfolio last month, notably suggested the European Union could ban Syrian phosphate imports.

He said banking and telecommunications firms were among the six entities targeted by an asset freeze in the EU's latest 16th round of sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

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