French President Francois Hollande and his Philippine counterpartBenigno Aquino III have agreed to foster cooperation in anti-terrorismwhile calling for the involvement of the international community.

Both sides have concurred to increase information sharing and workclosely to monitor suspected individuals and eradicate causes ofterrorism, said Hollande at a press conference after discussions withthe Philippine leader on February 26 in Manila as part of histwo-day state visit.

For his part, Aquino statedthat the two sides will call on the world community in the fight againstterrorism and its forms as a scourge to mankind.

Heacknowledged that a common problem facing both France and thePhilippines is the presence of terrorist cells inside their countries.

The Philippines are currently facing a300-member Islamic terrorist group in the south, Abu Sayyaf, with closelinks to the al-Qaeda terrorist group, said Aquino.

Meanwhile, in France , the Yemeni al-Qaeda cell conducted a number ofterrorist attacks in early January, including an attack on Charlie Hebdomagazine headquarters in Paris that killed 12 people.

During their talks, the French and Philippines leaders also called forunited global initiatives on climate change, including the signing of aglobal agreement on climate change prevention at the 21st UnitedNations Conference on Climate Change (COP-21) to be held in Paris inDecember.-VNA