No Ukraine summit without progress on peace plan, Merkel tells Putin

German Chancellor Angela Merkel smiles during a news conference at a party meeting of Germany's Christian Democratic Party (CDU) in Hamburg, January 10, 2015. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone on Saturday that a four-way summit to discuss the situation in eastern Ukraine would not take place until there was real progress on the Minsk peace plan.

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement after the phone call that Merkel welcomed Russian efforts to find a solution to the crisis.