A fighter with the Syrian Democratic Forces fires a mortar shell toward a part of Baghouz where remaining Islamic State (IS) group fighters are holding out in their last position, in the countryside of the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor on March 18. A shroud of black smoke covered the last redoubt as forces battled holdout jihadists. Photo: AFP

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian on Wednesday said he would discuss a judicial framework for putting jihadists on trial during an upcoming visit to Iraq, as calls grow for an international court to judge the extremists.

"We need to work things out with the Iraqi authorities so that we can find a way to have a judicial mechanism that is able to judge all these fighters, including obviously the French fighters," he told BFM-TV, without specifying when he would go to Baghdad.

Seven European countries - France, Britain, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark - have during the last months been discussing setting up an international court in Iraq for putting foreign Islamic State (IS) jihadists on trial.

Officials from all seven countries took part in a technical mission to Baghdad to assess the situation.

In a joint statement, they said they had learned from the Iraqi authorities about "the daunting task they are facing in bringing Daesh [IS] to justice and rebuilding the society."

A major issue will be Iraq's use of the death penalty, which is outlawed throughout the EU.

Hundreds of foreigners have been sentenced to death or life imprisonment in Iraq for belonging to the Islamic State group. 

A dozen French jihadists held by Kurdish forces in northern Syria were already handed over to the Iraqi authorities at the end of the January to be put on trial although Le Drian said further transfers were not planned at the moment.