US President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande look out over Omaha Beach during a joint French-US D-Day commemoration ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-mer, on Friday, marking the 70th anniversary of the World War II Allied landings. Photo: AFP

Amid tensions in the Ukraine crisis, leaders from the US, Europe and Russia met on Friday in France to honor the 70th anniversary of D-Day as Russian President Vladimir Putin met Ukraine's president-elect Petro Poroshenko in a brief but potentially significant meeting to discuss a cease-fire.

It was the first meeting between the two men since pro-Western chocolate tycoon Poroshenko won Ukraine's presidential election on May 25.

"Putin and Poroshenko called for the soonest possible end to bloodshed in southeastern Ukraine, and to military operations on both sides - both by the Ukrainian armed forces and by supporters of the federalization of Ukraine," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

"They also confirmed that there was no alternative to resolving the situation with peaceful political methods," Peskov said.

The two leaders talked for a quarter of an hour in a meeting hosted by French President Francois Hollande before a lunch of world leaders at the D-Day anniversary ceremonies.

"The practicalities of a cease-fire will also be discussed in the coming days," an aide to Hollande said, underlining that Putin would be sending an ambassador to Kiev on Saturday.

Putin also met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday on the sidelines of D-Day ceremonies.

"The chancellor expressed her conviction that, the time must now be used, after the internationally recognized presidential election, to stabilize the situation, especially in eastern Ukraine. Russia must live up to its significant responsibility in this matter," Merkel said, according to her spokesman Steffen Seibert.

Aside from world leaders, more than 250 World War II veterans in their late 80s and early 90s, many of them frail, traveled to Omaha Beach to commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day.

In a speech in tribute to US veterans who 70 years ago stormed the beaches of northern France, US President Barack Obama told the veterans their spirit of courage and sacrifice is being continued by a new generation of soldiers who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Whenever the world makes you cynical - stop and think of these men," Obama told the audience of 14,500 people.

A 21-gun salute and a flyover by F16 fighter jets shook the cemetery, where 9,387 white marble headstones mark the graves of American soldiers lost in battle.

"It was here, on these shores, that the tide was turned in that common struggle for freedom," Obama said, recounting the drama and bloodshed of D-Day on the sweeping beach that lies below the cemetery.

Obama's time in office has been defined by the struggle to end lengthy wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, wars that began after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US.

Lately Obama has grappled with a scandal over coverups of waiting times for veterans seeking medical care. He has faced a backlash over a deal made with the Taliban to release Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, a prisoner-of-war in Afghanistan.

"This generation - this 9/11 generation of service members - they, too, felt some tug. They answered some call," Obama told the older veterans.

"I want each of you to know that your legacy is in good hands," he said.

Obama and Putin held informal talks on the margins of the leaders' lunch.

It was their first meeting since the start of Ukraine crisis and first face-to-face encounter since the G20 summit in St Petersburg last year.

However the content of their talks remained unknown.

Separately, China used the 70th anniversary of D-Day landings to urge Japan to face up to its history.

"Germany's sincere remorse has won the confidence of the world," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily news briefing on Friday when asked about the D-Day anniversary.

"But in Asia on the Asian battlefield, the leaders of Japan, which caused harm and which lost the war, are to this day still trying to reverse the course of history and deny their history of invasion," Hong said.
Newspaper headline: Putin meets new Ukraine leader