France moved closer Thursday to adopting an "anti-terrorism" law which would slap a travel ban on anyone suspected of planning to wage jihad after the upper house Senate approved the draft law.

The bill comes as authorities are increasingly wary about the number of French citizens and residents travelling to fight in Iraq and Syria who could potentially come back and stage attacks in their home country.

But while the majority of senators approved the bill, the Greens and Communists voted against it due to fears it would curtail citizen freedoms.

The travel ban included in the draft law would see suspects have their passports and ID cards confiscated for six months, with the measure renewable for up to two years.

It also brings in punishment for "lone wolves" who plan terrorist attacks on their own, and allows authorities to ask Internet service providers to block access to sites that endorse "acts of terrorism".

The bill was approved by the lower house National Assembly last month and now has to be examined by a joint commission of MPs and senators before being signed into law.

But "La Quadrature du Net", a French association that defends online rights, slammed the bill as "unsuitable and dangerous", calling for parliamentarians to take it to the Constitutional Council, which ensures that the French constitution is respected.

According to Prime Minister Manuel Valls, some 1,000 nationals or French residents are involved in one way or another in jihadist networks, by either making their way to Syria or Iraq, having already returned or being suspected of wanting to travel abroad.

While some grow disillusioned when they join jihadists in Syria or Iraq, authorities fear that others could be indoctrinated, come home and carry out attacks on home soil.

For instance, Mehdi Nemmouche, a French national suspected of killing four people at Brussels' Jewish Museum in May, had spent more than a year fighting with Islamic extremists in Syria.

Russia denies agreed with US to share intel on IS militants
Moscow (AFP) Oct 16, 2014 - Moscow on Thursday denied a US assertion that it had agreed to ramp up intelligence-sharing with Washington over the Islamic State group, saying it would provide no such help without UN Secuity Council approval.

The statement by Russia's foreign ministry contradicted a declaration by US Secretary of State John Kerry made after a meeting in Paris on Tuesday with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Moscow "will not join any 'coalition' set up without the backing of the UN Security Council and that violates international law," the ministry said.

It pointed out that a bilateral commission involving Washington and Moscow that aimed to help tackle terrorism had been scrapped by the US.

Moscow also added that it was already giving "significant help" to countries including Syria and Iraq and would continue to do so.

The slapdown to Kerry appeared to underline yet again the fraught state of US-Russian relations, brought low by the crisis in Ukraine where pro-Russian rebels are fighting a pro-West government.

Kerry had said on Tuesday that he and Lavrov reached an agreement "to intensify intelligence cooperation with respect to ISIL (Islamic State) and other counter-terrorism challenges".

He said Lavrov had "acknowledged their preparedness to help with respect to arms, weapons, they are doing that now, they already have provided some, and also potentially with the training and advising aspects".

The US has imposed the toughest sanctions on Moscow since the end of the Cold War over its backing for the separatist rebels in Ukraine.

The two sides are also at loggerheads over the civil war in Syria, where Moscow has been a staunch ally of President Bashar al-Assad.

Washington is currently spearheading a coalition of Western and Arab nations conducting an air campaign against the Islamic State jihadists.