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BRUSSELS/NEWPORT, WALES: The European Union is set to agree new economic sanctions against Russia on Friday but will wait before implementing them to give Moscow time to show if it is respecting a proposed ceasefire in Ukraine, diplomats said.

How long it would hold off has yet to be decided, and if a peace holds then the package might not be implemented at all.

Two diplomats said EU leaders could give President Vladimir Putin a week to demonstrate he was resolving the conflict, another spoke of 72 hours. Envoys from member states meet in Brussels on Friday afternoon and the diplomats said the details of the sanctions package should be settled then.

"They want to give the ceasefire a chance," one said of hopes of a deal between Russia and Ukraine in Minsk on Friday.

Another said: "If the ceasefire holds, then there is a possibility of not implementing sanctions at all."

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko and the main pro-Russian rebel leader both announced on Thursday they would call a ceasefire on Friday if a peace deal is signed in Minsk, which would be the first such breakthrough in the five-month war.

The European Union and United States imposed sanctions against Russia after Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in March, and tightened them since then, accusing Russia of supporting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's east.

The latest wave of sanctions was announced after Western countries said they believed Russia had send ground troops into Ukraine, helping the rebels launch a major advance last week.

Once EU ambassadors agree the next wave of sanctions, it would take a decision by the 28 national leaders to put the measures into effect.

British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond told the BBC he favoured going ahead with the immediate implementation of sanctions and then lifting them if the ceasefire held.

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European Union to give Russia days to make peace before new sanctions: Sources