Berlin to check in Moscow if ceasefire boosted by Brisbane talks

KIEV (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Kiev on Tuesday, on his way to Moscow, that he wanted to see if talks in Brisbane between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin had improved the chances of an effective ceasefire in Ukraine.

Steinmeier told a joint news conference with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk that he was worried the fresh fighting between government troops and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine would undermine September's ceasefire signed in Minsk.

"Last weekend in Brisbane there were a lot of talks with the Russian president including the German chancellor with Mr Putin, so now I am here and this afternoon ... I will set out to see if these talks in Brisbane have created an atmosphere where we can work more concretely to implement the Minsk agreement," he said.

(Reporting by Stephen Brown in Berlin)