A tripartite meeting on the Ukraine crisis involving Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel ended in Moscow early Saturday with a commitment to work towards a joint document.

“Joint work is underway to prepare a text for a possible joint document on implementing the Minsk Agreements based on the suggestions formulated by the President of France and the Chancellor of Germany. The document will include proposals from the President of Ukraine, as well as suggestions drawn up during today’s meeting and added by the President of Russia,” said a Kremlin statement.

The Minsk agreements were aimed at committing the Kiev government and the pro-independence militants to an immediate ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, but failed when the two sides broke the five-month truce in January.

On Sunday the troika and Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko would summarize the results of discussions through a telephone conversation.

Kremlin press-secretary Dmitry Peskov said this was being done “for presenting this text and these proposals for approval to all parties to the conflict.”

“The work will go on and its preliminary results will be summarized next Sunday, in a Normandy format telephone conversation at the summit level,” added the statement.

He described the just-ended talks as “meaningful and substantive”.

Putin, Hollande and Merkel held closed-door talks for about five hours on Friday night to try and find a way out of the crisis.

Earlier, Merkel and Hollande paid a brief visit to Kiev for a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

Meanwhile Washington has begun openly hinting it could arm Ukraine’s military.

US General Philip Breedlove, the top military commander in NATO, implied that he favored sending weapons, telling a security conference in Munich that the West should use “all the tools in the toolbag”.

TBP and Agencies

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The leaders of the United Nations and the Arab League made an urgent appeal to international donors Friday to expedite aid promised to the people of Gaza, following last year's devastating war.

In a joint statement, Ban Ki-moon and Nabil al-Arabi expressed their "deep concern" over limited resources to improve the situation in Gaza.

They "urgently appeal to donors to honor and disburse as soon as possible their financial commitments made at the October 2014 Cairo Conference," the statement said.

Those funds include money for UN agencies in Gaza to "prevent a further deterioration in the already dire humanitarian situation."

The international community promised $5.4 billion to the Palestinians, half of which is to help rebuild Gaza after devastating Israeli bombing aimed at stopping Hamas rocket attacks in July last year.

The two leaders pointed out reconstruction has been slow in Gaza and aid is necessary to ensure stability for the people.

Short on money, the UN announced in January they had suspended housing financial aid to tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, responsible for distributing much of the aid, has said none of the promised aid had arrived to Gaza.

Qatar made the largest aid promise, a billion dollars, during the Cairo conference.

Washington announced $212 million additional aid and the European Union pledged about 450 million euros at the conference.

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The United Arab Emirates said Saturday it ordered a squadron of F-16 fighters to Jordan, which an official said would participate in airstrikes on the Islamic State group after the UAE earlier suspended its involvement.

The UAE fighter jets will participate in airstrikes on Islamic State targets, said a Jordanian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the issue to journalists.

The UAE announcement, carried by the state news agency WAM, did not say what role the Emirati warplanes would play. An Emirati official declined to elaborate.

Both countries are members of a U.S.-led military coalition against the militants.

Late last year, the UAE suspended its airstrikes after a Jordanian pilot crashed over northern Syria and was captured by the militants, U.S. officials have said. The UAE, which hosts air bases used by American and coalition partners, has not commented on suspending its strikes.

The militants recently released a video showing them burning the Jordanian pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, to death while he was trapped in a cage. The images angered Jordan and the region.

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Demonstrators, one with a Jordanian flag image painted on his face and Arabic that reads, "Muat …

Jordan has pledged harsh retaliation and said it would intensify strikes on Islamic State group targets. Starting Thursday, Jordanian jets have carried out daily attacks, according to the military and state media.

Jordan's interior minister, Hussein al-Majali, told the state-run al-Rai newspaper in comments published Saturday that Jordan will go after the militants "wherever they are."

The most recent airstrikes are "the beginning of a continued process to eliminate them and wipe them out completely," he said of the militants who control about a third of neighboring Syria and Iraq.

ISIS claims American hostage killed by Jordanian airstrike in Syria (video)