US' Rubio will meet French foreign minister on Thursday, source says

(This April 16 story has been corrected to say 'Keith Kellogg' in paragraph 6)

PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot on Thursday during his visit to Paris and they will discuss the war in Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East and Iran nuclear talks, a French diplomatic source said on Wednesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration relaunched negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme this month with talks in Oman last weekend and a second round expected in Rome this weekend. It has also started talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

French media had reported that U.S. officials would be in Paris this week.

French government spokesperson Sophie Primas told reporters on Wednesday that Rubio and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff would visit France soon.

Primas added that they would broadly discuss issues in the Middle East with French officials, saying: "All subjects regarding the Middle East will be on the table."

Separately, on Thursday, French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu will travel to Washington to meet with his counterpart, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as well as with Keith Kellogg, Trump's Ukraine envoy, and Tulsi Gabbard, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, the ministry said.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Elizabeth Pineau; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

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