France said Tuesday there would be no let-up in diplomatic efforts to bring peace to Ukraine as the Kiev government announced the end of a ceasefire in the restive east of the country.

France and Germany led efforts overnight to "de-escalate" the conflict with talks held between the foreign ministers of both countries and their counterparts in Russia and Ukraine, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.

Nicolas Sarkozy was taken into custody for questioning in a criminal investigation Tuesday in an unprecedented move that could wreck the former president's hopes of a political comeback.

The right-wing leader was detained at a police station in a Paris suburb in connection with a suspected attempt to illegally influence judicial proceedings in one of a raft of colorful corruption cases he is implicated in.

French President Francois Hollande on Monday condemned what he described as the "cowardly murder" of three Israeli teenagers whose bodies were found in the West Bank three weeks after they went missing.

Hollande "strongly condemns the cowardly murder of Eyal Ifrach, Naftali Frankel and Gilad Shaer and offers his sincere condolences to their families as well as to the Israeli authorities," the presidency said in a statement.

A Paul Pogba header and a Joseph Yobo own goal saw France edge a hard-fought contest with Nigeria 2-0 in Brasilia on Monday to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.

Pogba broke the deadlock in the 79th minute, nodding into an empty net after Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama, who plays for French club Lille, failed to collect a corner.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday called for Ukraine's truce to be extended and for new talks between Kiev and separatists, just hours before the current ceasefire expires.

"Vladimir Putin stressed the importance of extending a ceasefire as well as creating a reliable mechanism to control the observance of the truce with an active role of the OSCE," the Kremlin said in a statement after Putin held talks with his French counterpart Francois Hollande, Germany's Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Monday that jihadists spearheading a militant offensive in Iraq have sold oil from captured areas to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Fabius said the sale was evidence of the "confusing" nature of the escalating conflict in the Middle East in which Assad and the jihadists are in theory on opposing sides.

China's central bank said it has signed agreements for yuan clearing arrangements with France and Luxembourg, with the aim of promoting greater use of its currency overseas.

The People's Bank of China (PBoC) said it would designate Chinese banks as the yuan clearing institutions in the two European countries later, according to statements issued on Sunday.

French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke for "over two hours" with their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts Sunday, the Elysee said, with the latest ceasefire deadline in Ukraine looming.

During the telephone exchange with Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's leader Petro Poroshenko, the leaders discussed "the importance of making new concrete advances in the security situation on the ground, prolonging the ceasefire and putting in place the peace plan" presented by Ukraine, the French president said in a statement.

A lawmaker pressing for New Caledonia to remain a French overseas territory participated for the first time Friday in a meeting of the United Nations Decolonization Committee.

Though it is technically part of France, the nickel-rich Pacific island chain formulates its own tax, labor laws and trade policy.

Mustaqbal Movement chief MP Saad Hariri and United States Secretary of State John Kerry stressed during their meeting on Thursday the need to elect a new president for Lebanon as soon as possible.

As Safir newspaper reported on Saturday that the talks “may produce a new international dynamic to deal with the presidential elections.”