French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said on Wednesday operation to arrest serial shooter who killed seven people in the last two weeks in southern cities of Toulouse and Montauban could last all this night.

"Police operation will not last days but it could last this night. There are physical fatigue and nervosity," the minister told BFMTV news channel.

"We want him alive to bring him to justice, to know his motivations ... and if he has accomplices," he added.

Earlier, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said the presumed killer of three national paratroops from ethnic minorities and four Jewish is a young French man from Algerian origin claiming to have links with al-Qaeda.

France's anti-terrorist police was still negotiating with Mohamed Merah which was besieged in his home for hours. He said to surrender on Wednesday afternoon and then later in the evening.

In a separate report, Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said the young gunman who planned to kill two other policemen and a soldier "boasts that he has brought France to its knees" and has no regrets "except not having more time to kill more people."

"He has explained that he is not suicidal, that he does not have the soul of a martyr and that he prefers to kill but to stay alive himself," Molins added.