2nd LD Writhru: Germany says summit on Ukraine crisis to be held on Wednesday

A summit over Ukraine crisis would be held in Minsk on Wednesday and attended by leaders from Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine, German government announced on Sunday.

The summit will be attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, said German government spokesman Steffen Seibert in a statement.

Representatives from the trilateral contact group on the Ukraine crisis, composing of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Russia and Ukraine, as well as representatives of the independent-seeking insurgency in eastern Ukraine would also among the participants, the statement said.

Merkel, Hollande, Putin and Poroshenko held a detailed telephone conference this morning, working on a package of measures as part of the efforts to achieve a comprehensive settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Seibert said, adding that "this work will continue tomorrow in Berlin."

Another spokesman for German government told Xinhua that "some people" would attend the "work" in Berlin on Monday, but he refused to identify the participants.

Merkel and Hollande visited Moscow on Friday to discuss with Putin ways to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine.

In a speech at the ongoing annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Merkel told the audience that her attempt with Hollande deserved though "it is uncertain whether the talks will succeed."

In a separate session, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia saw "good grounds for optimism to issue recommendations for conflict resolution."

His German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier also told a German television in Munich that a progress on resolving the Ukraine crisis could be seen "in the next two or three days." Endit