French President Francois Hollande on a visit to Moscow Thursday calk for forming a broad international coalition against the Islamic State group, trying to unite France, the U.S. and Russia in the aftermath of the horrifying Paris attacks that killed 130 people.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was mourning for the victims of the Paris attacks and those who died in the crash of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt. He praised Hollande’s efforts to build an anti-terror coalition and said that Moscow was open for stronger cooperation.

Hollande’s visit comes two days after he met with President Barack Obama in Washington, where both leaders vowed to escalate airstrikes against IS and bolster intelligence sharing.

“We need to take the lead so that there can be actions against terrorism that must be intensified,” he told Putin at the start of their talks in the Kremlin.

IS has claimed responsibility for the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, as well as deadly bombings in Beirut and the downing of a Russian airplane on Oct. 31 that killed all 224 people on board over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

“Terrorism is our enemy,” Hollande said. “We know it, it has a name: it’s Daesh, the Islamic State.”

Hollande’s difficult task became even more arduous after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border on Tuesday. The incident underscored the complex military landscape in Syria, where a sprawling cast of countries and rebel groups are engaged on the battlefield and in the skies overhead, sometimes with minimal coordination.

The French president hopes to make progress on three priority issues: to prevent Syrian President Bashar Assad from targeting civilians, to focus the airstrikes on IS militants _ not the moderate Syrian opposition _ and to move forward on a political transition in Syria.

France will also seek to “avoid an escalation” between Russia and Turkey, according to a French diplomatic official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

In advance of Hollande's meeting with Putin, France sought to dismiss concerns that it might soften its stance on international sanctions against Russia over Ukraine in exchange for Russia's cooperation in the fight against IS. France's ambassador to the U.S., Gerard Araud, tweeted on Tuesday evening that "Hollande has confirmed the sanctions will be maintained as long as the Minsk agreements are not implemented."

Araud was referring to peace agreements for eastern Ukraine forged in the Belarusian capital in February.

Following his meeting with the French president, Obama said Russian cooperation in the fight against IS would be "enormously helpful." Both Obama and Hollande, however, insisted that a political transition in Syria must lead to Assad’s departure. Russia, on the other hand, has been Assad’s staunchest ally.

Last week, Hollande called for the U.S. and Russia to set aside their policy divisions over Syria and "fight this terrorist army in a broad, single coalition." But his office acknowledges that "coordination" sounds like a far more realistic goal.

With two suspects of the Paris attacks at large, tensions were still high in Belgium on Thursday with the capital, Brussels, on the highest-level threat alert.

Authorities launched a raid in southern Belgium Thursday afternoon linked to the Paris attacks, but didn’t detain any suspects.

In Brussels, a civil protection squad decontaminated several people as a precaution at the main mosque after a suspicious parcel arrived. The person who opened the package discovered white powder and immediately contacted authorities. A specialized crew from the fire department was sent, witnesses at the scene said.

___

Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow, and Raf Casert in Brussels, contributed to this report.