Leaders to prepare Ukrainian peace plan

The leaders of Russia, France and Germany have agreed in Moscow to work on a peace plan for Ukraine they will put to Ukraine's president on Sunday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have agreed in Moscow to work on a peace plan that they will put to Ukraine’s president on Sunday.

The news was announced after the three parties talked more than four hours on Friday in what they described as a "constructive and substantive” meeting.

They will discuss the plan for eastern Ukraine by phone with President Petro Poroshenko on Sunday.

The details of the plan are not yet known but it is thought to be an attempt to revive a September ceasefire, signed in Minsk in Belarus. Since that original peace plan, the rebels in east Ukraine have seized more ground, raising alarm in Kiev and among Ukraine's allies.

Russia has been accused of arming and reinforcing pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine- claims it denies.

Fighting in Ukraine  has left around 5,400 people dead since April, according to  UN estimates. Around 1.2 million Ukrainians have also fled their homes since April, when the rebels seized a big swathe of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions following Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Merkel, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are all expected to speak at security conference in Munich in the near future, where Ukrainian events are expected to feature prominently. .