WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says Russia’s airstrikes against moderate opposition groups in Syria are bolstering the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

He’s calling on Russia to play a more constructive role by shifting the focus of its airstrikes to defeating the Islamic State.

Speaking at a joint news conference with French President Francois Hollande after the two met to discuss the global response to the Islamic State group, Obama said IS cannot be tolerated and must be destroyed.

Calling it a “barbaric terrorist group,” he said this is an important moment for the U.S. and France as well as the rest of the world.

Hollande’s trip to Washington is part of a diplomatic push to get the international community to bolster the campaign against the Islamic State extremists. But he’s likely to leave Washington without firm backing for his call to bring Russia into a new coalition to fight the extremists.

French President Francois Hollande says that in a meeting with President Barack Obama the two decided to scale up their efforts in Syria and Iraq.

Hollande says the two countries will strengthen their intelligence-sharing regarding targets.

Obama says the United States will do even more to prevent attacks at home and that there is a growing recognition after the Paris attacks that European countries need to ramp up efforts to stop the flow of terrorists.