French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday (December 17th) predicted the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) would be crushed in Syria by February, pushing for the Syrian government and opposition to come together for fresh peace talks early next year.

"We have just won the war in Iraq with the coalition," Macron said in an interview with France 2 television.

"And I think that by the middle to the end of February, we will have won the war in Syria."

Despite this week's failure of the latest UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva, Macron said he wants to see "a process emerge at the start of next year with [Syrian president] Assad's representatives, but I hope also representatives of all of the opposition".

He underlined that France's top priority as part of the coalition pounding ISIS is "the extermination" of the extremist group.

"France's plan is to win peace, de-mine the country, to de-militarise it and build a political solution that will allow a durable peace -- which means all minorities being protected, Christians, Shias and Sunnis," Macron said.