French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said they want to extend sanctions against Russia due to a lack of progress in implementing a ceasefire deal.

Merkel, speaking with Hollande who was visiting a Franco-German conference on the digital economy in Berlin, said implementation of the ceasefire deal was "very sluggish".

"It will be necessary to extend the sanctions against Russia again - although we would have wished for better progress in the implementation of this process," she said.

Hollande agreed. "We must continue to apply the terms of the Minsk agreement and when they are not carried out, we must continue with sanctions," Reuters cited him as saying.

The sanctions were extended several times and are due to expire at the end of January.