PARIS, June 23 - French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel lamented the "insufficient" progress in resolving the Ukraine crisis after a telephone conversation Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a source close to the French president, AFP reported.

"The chancellor and the president (Hollande) raised the need to put pressure on the various parties" given that progress is "insufficient," the source said, a day before foreign ministers from Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany hold talks in Paris on the crisis.

The three-way call, which lasted 45 minutes, came after EU foreign ministers formally agreed to prolong damaging economic sanctions against Russia until January 2016, in order to pressure Moscow to fully implement a February peace deal.