GENEVA (AFP) - No "solution is in sight" on the Ukraine crisis, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Tuesday after a "difficult" talk in Geneva with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

"I had a difficult, long and very serious talk but it wasn't enough to say that a solution is in sight," Mr Steinmeier told reporters after the meeting late on Monday.

"I can't run up a flag to say that we are on the way to finding a solution and that Ukraine and Russia are about to start talking."