PARIS, Feb 6 (Reuters) - France and Bahrain have signed a bilateral deal on defence which includes strategic information sharing, the office of French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday.

"This agreement will also open up new opportunities for industrial cooperation in defence, and strengthen solidarity between our two countries in a global and regional geopolitical context marked by increasing tensions," it said.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro, editing by Bart Meijer)

By Gwladys Fouche

OSLO, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Norway looks set to launch an inquiry into its own foreign ministry over links to late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, one of several European nations to feel the heat from a scandal that has yet to cause major political repercussions in the U.S.

The release of an enormous cache of new files last week has revealed a host of new Epstein connections with politicians, royals and the ultra-rich.

STOCKHOLM, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Sweden's centre-right government said on Friday it planned to make all asylum seekers live in migrant reception centres while their cases are processed, in a further tightening of immigration regulations.

People will have to prove that they have moved to the centres, or risk losing their benefits, and also agree to travel restrictions, Migration Minister Johan Forssell told reporters.

By Can Sezer

ISTANBUL, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Turkey is laying the groundwork to restrict social media access for minorswith a parliamentary report this week calling for broad measures including age verification and content filtering, joining a growing list of countries seeking tighter controls.

MOSCOW, Feb 6 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Friday that it hoped that negotiations between Iran and the United States in Oman would yield results and lead to a de-escalation and urged all sides to show restraint in the meantime.

Iran and the United States started high-stakes negotiations on Friday to try to overcome sharp differences over Tehran's nuclear programme, with Oman shuttling between the sides, but a dispute over widening the agenda risked derailing diplomacy and triggering another Middle East conflict.

US President Donald Trump said that Washington had "very good talks" on Iran after the two sides held an indirect dialogue in Oman, pledging another round of negotiations next week.

Iran for its part said it expected to hold more negotiations with the United States, hailing a "positive atmosphere" during a day of talks in the Gulf sultanate.

With an American naval group led by an aircraft carrier in Middle Eastern waters, US and Iranian delegations held talks in Muscat on Friday mediated by Oman without publicly meeting face-to-face.

DUBAI/WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Iran and the United States are set to hold high-stakes negotiations in Oman on Friday over Tehran's nuclear programme, but a dispute over the agenda suggests progress will be hard won amid the threat of a regional Middle East war.

Iran and the United States were preparing for talks on Friday in Oman, with Washington looking to see if there was any prospect of diplomatic progress on the Iranian nuclear programme and other issues while refusing to rule out military action.

The talks -- finally confirmed by both sides late Wednesday after uncertainty over the location, timing and format -- will be the first such encounter between the two foes since the United States joined Israel's war against the Islamic republic in June with strikes on nuclear sites.

"They drove us out at gunpoint," says Lebanese citizen Zeinab Qataya, who fled her adopted home in Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad and returned to her country to live in a camp built by Hezbollah.

The construction of the Imam Ali Housing Compound has proved controversial, but Lebanese and Syrian families pushed out of villages just over the border in Syria say they now rely on the Iran-backed movement for safety.

Dissident Iranian film director Jafar Panahi told AFP he believes ordinary Iranians risk being "sacrificed" in talks between Iran and the United States on Friday, with his country still "in shock" over a deadly crackdown on protests.

Panahi, Iran's best-known director, offered support for anti-government protests last month in which thousands of people were killed by security forces, according to rights groups.