France said Wednesday that it and the US were determined to fight "terrorist barbarism" after President Barack Obama called counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy to offer condolences for a series of shootings.
Obama called Sarkozy to offer "his personal condolences and those of the American people", the French presidency said in a statement.
"France and the United States are more determined than ever to fight together gainst terrorist barbarism," it added.
The White House meanwhile said Obama had "expressed his solidarity" with the French government and its people, and that the US leader "welcomed" the fact that French authorities had located the shooting suspect.
The call came as French police continued to lay siege to an apartment where a self-declared Al-Qaeda militant who has claimed shootings that killed three soldiers and three children and a teacher at a Jewish school was holed up.
The French government said Obama had also "hailed the effectiveness of French police forces" after the gunman was tracked down.
The White House said Obama also "underscored that the American people stand shoulder to shoulder with our French allies and friends in this trying time."
Sarkozy had returned to the Elysee palace in Paris after visiting the scene of the siege in the southwestern city of Toulouse and attending a memorial ceremony for the dead soldiers.

EJP