The meeting lasted for four hour and 40 minutes, said a source close to the presidency, on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media, Anadolu Agency reports.
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Ayrault told France 3 television that European Union ministers would reiterate on Monday when they meet in Brussels that Turkey – which has applied to join the bloc – must conform to Europe’s democratic principles.
The coup has led to public anger and calls for the government to reinstate the death penalty, a demand that Erdogan has said he will consider.
President Barack Obama and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan discussed the status of USA -based cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Turkish authorities for masterminding a recent failed coup, during a call on Tuesday, the White House said.
Over 200 people, including members of the security forces and civilians, were killed in Istanbul and Ankara and almost 1,500 others wounded as they protested against the coup.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said 24 media outlets were hit, while 34 journalists were stripped of their press cards.
The purging of thousands of alleged plotters of a failed coup raised tensions Monday between Turkey and the West, with US and European officials urging restraint, while Ankara insisted that Washington extradite an exile accused of orchestrating the plot.
The Turkish president, however, said he did not want to strain Turkey’s relations with the U.S. as a result of the extradition request.
“Erdogan turned the tables on Gulen after the corruption allegations”, said the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Henri Barkey.
In a wide-ranging interview with Talk to Al Jazeera, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted that Turkish democracy is not under threat, but said there could be more arrests in the wake of last week’s failed coup attempt.
Aaron Stein, a resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, said many senior Turkish officials believed Washington had to take sides-“choose Turkey or choose Gulen”.
The coup attempt comes as Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest military by personnel, is engaged in a two-prong war – against Islamic State militants in neighbouring Syria and against Kurdish rebels at home.
Officials on Wednesday raised the death toll from the violence surrounding the coup attempt to 240 government supporters.
Erdogan frequently refers to “masterminds” who he says are bent on breaking up Turkey, in what appears a veiled reference to the West in general, and more specifically, the United States.
Cracking down on alleged subversives in education, Turkey also said on Wednesday that it would close more than 600 private schools and dormitories following the attempted coup, spurring fears that the state’s move against perceived enemies is throwing key institutions in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally into disarray. Even the sports ministry has dismissed 245 employees, state media said.
Erdogan has also encouraged citizens who took to the streets during the coup attempt to stay there as a “vigil” for democracy.
The military has often had strained relations with Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted government as the guardians of Turkey’s secular system and has carried out coups in the past.
Turkey has demanded Gulen’s extradition from the United States.
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The Turkish interior ministry dismissed nearly 9,000 police officers on Monday as part of a purge of officials suspected of involvement in the coup attempt. Turkkan reportedly said he “started to regret it after I saw the bombs explode and the civilians being harmed”.
