European Council President Donald Tusk is urging G7 leaders to stick to their sanctions policy on Russia over the Ukraine crisis, a day after a senior US official said Washington had no position on the issue.
The 28-nation EU bloc and the US imposed sanctions on Russia after Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and then backed separatist rebels in the east.
While EU leaders have so far backed sanctions until a shaky ceasefire agreement signed in February 2015 in Minsk is fully implemented, US President Donald Trump's promise of warmer ties with Moscow has tested the EU's resolve to remain united.
"A solution to the conflict can only be reached with the full implementation of the Minsk accords," Tusk said before the Sicily summit, which gathers the leaders of the US, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Japan and Canada.
"Since our last G7 summit in Japan (in 2016) we haven't seen anything to justify a change in our sanctions policy towards Russia. Therefore I will appeal to the other G7 leaders to reconfirm this policy."
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Tusk was responding to comments by White House economic adviser Gary Cohn on Thursday that appeared to differ to those from US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who has repeatedly said sanctions must remain until Minsk is put in place.
"I think the president is looking at it. Right now, we don't have a position," Cohn said.
Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, said he was optimistic that there would be common ground with Trump on Russia.
