As officials at the Munich Security Conference continued to debate long-term solutions to the conflict in Ukraine the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany spoke by phone to focus on an urgent ceasefire. Afterwards Berlin announced peace talks aimed at ending the fighting would be held in Minsk on Wednesday. But Germany's foreign minister remained cautious.

Transatlantic division emerged at the conference with U.S senator John McCain describing Germany's refusal to send defensive weapons to Ukraine as "foolishness".

Kerry also held an unscheduled discussion on Tehran's nuclear program with his Iranian counterpart who said a deal could and should be done at the next round of official talks.

The rise of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria and how to deal with that threat provoked much debate as did other concerns such as domestic terrorism, climate change, energy security and the Ebola outbreak in west Africa.

At the end of the day though it was the crisis in Ukraine that dominated this conference, which was effectively transformed into informal peace talks that many hope might now conclude with a ceasefire agreement in Minsk.

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