No sanctions planned against Russia: French official

PARIS (Reuters) - European Union leaders will not impose sanctions on Russia at Monday's EU summit meeting on the Georgia crisis, a senior French diplomat said on Friday.

"At the current stage, we do not expect any sanctions to be decided by the European Council," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters ahead of the summit.

"The time to pass sanctions has certainly not come," he said, adding that relations between Russia and the European Union would be "under observation" as long as the six-point ceasefire plan brokered by France was not observed.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Thursday that sanctions were among the measures being considered ahead of the summit, although he stressed that France was not among the countries pressing for such a move.

France, which holds the rotating European Union presidency, has called a meeting of EU heads of government on Monday to discuss the Georgian crisis that blew up this month over the Russian-backed separatist enclave of South Ossetia.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy and Emmanuel Jarry; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Giles Elgood)