HAMBURG German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday there was no glossing over the fact that there had been "very, very slow" progress in implementing the Minsk peace accords aimed at ending years of violence in eastern Ukraine.

Merkel said she would hold four-way telephone talks on next steps soon with the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and France following a more procedural conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Hamburg.

"We agreed to continue the process. But we also observed that progress had been very, very slow - with stagnation in some cases, relapses in others. We didn't gloss over the situation," she said. "We will stay in touch, we'll stick with the format. We don't have any other basis."

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Noah Barkin)

HAMBURG President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday he thought his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump had been satisfied with his assertions that Russia had not meddled in the U.S. presidential election.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Saturday said that the U.S.-Mexico relationship cannot be defined by "murmurs," the day after U.S. President Donald Trump said Mexico would "absolutely" pay for his proposed southern border wall.

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Merkel cites 'very, very slow' progress on Ukraine peace deal - Reuters