G20 leaders meet in Turkey, anti-militant fight set to dominate talks

World leaders are meeting at the G20 summit in Turkey on Sunday in talks certain to be dominated by the recent attacks in Paris. French President Francois Hollande will not be attending, choosing to stay at home as France grapples with the consequences of the attack in which 132 people were killed. 

The G20 meeting will take place in the heavily guarded Turkish Mediterranean resort of Antalya, where 30,000 security personnel have reportedly been deployed to protect the summit venue. The official told AFP on Sunday that the battle against militants, lately dubbed a “war” by French President Francois Hollande, will top the agenda of international talks usually dominated by economic issues.

US President Barack Obama will also hold separate talks with Saudi Arabia's King Salman at the sidelines of the summit, a US official said. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he wanted the world leaders gathering at the summit to send a "very strong, tough message" against "international terrorism". Erdogan - who will hold a one-to-one meeting with his US counterpart on Sunday afternoon - also called for swift action saying that the “the time for words is over” after the Paris attacks.

The string of coordinated attacks in Paris came a day after twin blasts killed more than 40 people in Beirut and two separate attacks in Baghdad killed 26 others. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for all the attacks. 

The difficulties of tackling militancy were underscored on Sunday morning when a suspected member of Islamic State blew himself up some 300 kilometres east of the summit venue, injuring four police officers.

The man blew himself up when police raided an apartment in the southeastern town of Gaziantep as part of ongoing investigations into a double suicide bombing at a peace rally in Ankara last month that killed 102 people in an attack attributed to Islamic State.

The attacks will cast a long shadow over the Turkey gathering, where leaders will try to forge a joint statement on the attacks and narrow a deep divide over conflict-riven Syria.

US officials have said that President Obama will seek to persuade Middle Eastern and European leaders to commit more resources to a military campaign targeting IS militants in Iraq and Syria.