KIEV, July 23 - The leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine held talks over the conflict in east Ukraine, with all sides calling for the full implementation of a ceasefire deal, the French presidency said, AFP reported.

The phone conversation between Francois Hollande, Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko came a week after similar four-way talks.

On Thursday, the leaders "agreed on the importance of respecting pledges undertaken in Minsk in February," the presidency said in a statement, referring to the truce deal struck in the Belarussian capital.

These included "the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of contact, the complete implementation of the ceasefire and access to the OSCE's special observer mission."

The leaders also "welcomed the intention of the parties to discuss on July 28 local elections and the decentralization regime".

Meanwhile, around 300 people held a protest against the OSCE in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, picketing a hotel in rebel-held Donetsk in what the security watchdog said was an orchestrated move to restrict its work, Reuters reported.

The protesters, mainly women, arrived at the hotel in two buses accompanied by the city's separatist mayor Igor Martynov. A Reuters witness said they spray-painted peace slogans on the cars belonging to the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe).

The OSCE said the crowd was protesting the deaths of civilians in shelling despite a ceasefire deal and also against the work of the OSCE, which is monitoring the implementation of a peace agreement between Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels.

"We have to limit our movements in the aftermath," Alexander Hug, the deputy head of the OSCE's monitoring mission said in Kiev, condemning the "orchestrated" protest as a "type of censorship of our activity that is not acceptable."

He accused both sides of failing to respect the ceasefire by not fully withdrawing their heavy artillery as required by the peace agreement, which was brokered in February to end a conflict in which over 6,500 have been killed.

Three Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and over 40 wounded as a result of rebel attacks in the past week, according to Ukraine's military.

On Thursday separatist officials accused Ukrainian troops of intensifying attacks from heavy artillery on rebel positions, but reported no casualties. (afp/et/ez)