France's defence minister said on Thursday that Daesh terrorists had been weakened but not been wiped from the map in Syria and that the fight to defeat them definitively in their remaining pockets needed to carry on.

"Daesh has been weakened more than ever," Florence Parly said on Twitter, responding to U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement on Wednesday that the group had been defeated.

"But it has not been wiped from the map nor has its roots. It is necessary that the last pockets of this terrorist organisation be definitively defeated militarily."

French troops will remain in Syria

Meanwhile, French European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau said that France troops will remain in Syria for now.