France discusses fate of detained journalist and Syrian crisis with Erdogan

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke on Sunday with Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan about efforts to free a French journalist detained in the country.

The two leaders also discussed the Syrian crisis.

A statement from Macron's office on Sunday said he had demanded the release and return to France of journalist Loup Bureau, who was seized by Turkish border guards on the frontier with Iraq.

"The two presidents agreed to make further contact, and at the ministerial level as well, in order to arrive at a positive outcome," the statement from the Elysee Palace said of the journalist's plight.

They also discussed the situation in Syria, Iraq and the Gulf region as well as the battle against terrorism, with France working to create a specialist contact group to discuss Syria on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Bureau, 27, was arrested on 26 July and accused of having links with Kurdish militias, which Turkey regards as terrorist groups.

He is studying for a master's degree in journalism but has also worked as a reporter, notably on a story for French channel TV5 in 2013 on the armed Syrian group, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), France 24 website reported.

Foreign journalists have repeatedly been accused by the Turkish government of supporting terrorism by reporting on Kurdish groups, adding to tensions between Erdogan and the EU.

Bureau is the third French journalist to be detained in Turkey in the past year.

Turkey ranks 155 on the latest RSF World Press Freedom Index after dropping four places from its 2016 ranking.