German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says significant progress has been made in talks about the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Steinmeier was speaking after a meeting with his Russian, Ukrainian and French counterparts in Berlin.
Earlier, the head of the OSCE monitoring group said a renewed ceasefire had opened up a window for political progress.
Almost 8,000 people have been killed since fighting began in April 2014, notes the BBC.
Steinmeier said all parties reaffirmed that the ceasefire, which has held for almost two weeks, needed to be consolidated.
The warring sides were now “very close” to a deal that would see the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the frontline, he added.
He also said there was some progress on the legal groundwork towards holding local elections in eastern Ukraine in October.
Ukraine is due to hold its elections on October 25 while separatists in the rebel-controlled Luhansk and Donetsk regions have said they would hold their own votes on October 18 and November 1 respectively,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Berlin that a deal was “90% ready” but said the “devil is in the detail”.
The foreign ministers are due to meet again at a summit on October 2 in Paris.
