Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will urge French leaders to help strengthen sanctions against Iran and efforts to fight terrorism.

Netanyahu is visiting France on Wednesday and Thursday and will pay homage to a rabbi and three Jewish schoolchildren killed in France's worst terrorist attack and worst anti-Semitic attack in years. It is his first visit to France since the March attacks in Toulouse.

In an interview with Paris Match magazine, he is quoted as saying he wants to talk to French President Francois Hollande about "concrete ways to intensify sanctions against Iran. We also need to work together to fight terrorism."

Netanyahu also defended Jewish settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which France has long opposed.