Software that monitors suspicious behaviour and luggage could eventually be integrated into 40,000 surveillance cameras across France, a railway firm said Wednesday, as the country tightens security after last month's deadly Paris attacks.

Public transport authorities are looking to technology to better predict warning signs among passengers in the wake of the shootings and bombings that left 130 people dead.

New software being tested by France's state-owned SNCF tracks changes in body temperature, raised voices and jerky body movements that can indicate heightened levels of anxiety, the rail firm's general secretary Stephane Volant told AFP.

"We are testing to work out what flags up people with a negative intention, an aggressor, or a groper," he said, but added what was also being ascertained was the level of "social acceptability" of such software.

Cameras that detect packages left unattended for too long were also under evaluation, Volant said, adding the experiments had the full backing of the law.

Another strand of SNCF's strategy was the possibility of equipping its staff with wearable cameras to identify fare dodging or suspect behaviour, and in the spring it will launch an app that allows passengers to raise an alert from their smartphones.

A law is also under consideration in France to give SNCF security agents powers to perform security pat-downs and search passengers' luggage.

France will install security gates at stations in Paris and Lille for the Thalys cross-Europe rail services by December 20 in one of a raft of measures introduced after the Paris attacks, minister Segolene Royal said Tuesday.

A Thalys train from Amsterdam to Paris was attacked by a heavily armed man in August, but he was overpowered by passengers.

The high-speed Thalys service links Paris with Lille in northern France, the Belgian capital, Brussels, Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the western German city of Cologne.

Passengers boarding those trains do not currently have to pass through security checks, unlike for the cross-Channel Eurostar train services to Britain, which have airport-style security.

French defence minister to visit Moscow to coordinate IS fight
Paris (AFP) Dec 17, 2015 - French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will travel to Moscow for talks with Russian officials on Sunday and Monday to coordinate efforts to defeat Islamic State jihadists, his office announced.

"On December 20 and 21 Mr Le Drian will go to Russia to discuss coordination in the fight against Daesh (an Arabic acronym for Islamic State in the Levant), defence ministry spokesman Pierre Bayle told a press conference Thursday.

The minister's visit is "part of international efforts to reinforce the coalition against Daesh," he added.

After last month's deadly attacks in Paris and the October downing of a Russian plane in Egypt, claimed by Islamic State, French President Francois Hollande and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed to unprecedented cooperation of their forces in Syria in the battle against the jihadists.

So far the coordination has remained symbolic, with no visible effect on operations.

Russia has been carrying out air strikes in the war-ravaged nation at the request of President Bashar al-Assad since the end of September, while a US-led coalition, of which France is a member, is conducting its own campaign targeting the Islamic State group.

Moscow insists its campaign in Syria is aimed at destroying Islamic State jihadists and other extremist groups in the war-torn country.

But members of the US-led coalition complain that Russia is mainly hitting groups fighting Assad, and NGOs and observers have alleged civilian casualties.

On Thursday, Putin said Russia was providing air support to some of the armed opposition groups that are fighting the Islamic State group.

He did not say what rebel groups he was referring to.