Emergency Ukraine summit planned for Wednesday

Kiev

FRENCH, German and Ukrainian leaders are planning a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in a frantic bid to halt escalating bloodshed in east Ukraine.

The four leaders spoke by phone on Sunday as part of urgent efforts to achieve a "comprehensive settlement" in the conflict between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels, Berlin said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande have been carrying out frantic diplomacy in recent days, jetting to Kiev for talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and to Moscow to meet Mr Putin, who is accused by the West of masterminding the 10-month-old conflict.

Mr Putin said the summit planned in the Belarussian capital of Minsk would only take place if the leaders agreed on a "number of points" by then. "We will be aiming for Wednesday, if by that time we manage to agree on a number of points which we've been intensely discussing lately," he tol…