Mevlut Cavusoglu made the remarks after Paris announced it would maintain a presence despite an imminent US withdrawal, AFP reported.

Washington's decision to pull out 2,000 of his ground troops from the war-torn Syria has shocked most allies including France but was greeted with approval by Turkey, which will now have a freer rein to target Kurdish fighters from the US-backed People's Protection Units (YPG).

"If France is staying to contribute to Syria's future, great, but if they are doing this to protect the (militia), this will bring no benefit to anyone," Cavusoglu said, according to Hurriyet daily.

US President Donald Trump last week ordered the withdrawal of US ground forces that had been in Syria to provide training to the YPG under the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance battling against the Islamic State (IS) group.

Cavusoglu hit out at France's "support" of the YPG, which he said was "no secret" as he slammed French officials' meetings with leaders of the SDF's political wing last week.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey will intervene in the coming months against IS and the YPG.

Cavusoglu said Turkey has "the power to neutralize (IS) alone" amid fears that a US pull-out will hurt the fight against IS.

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