OSCE chief says reasonable to give Ukraine ceasefire chance before sanctions

PRAGUE (Reuters) - The ceasefire in Ukraine should be given some time to produce a political dialogue before more sanctions are imposed on Russia, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Chairman Didier Burkhalter said on Wednesday. "The question has to be... is it a timely situation now for announcing new sanctions or does it make the fragile situation more fragile," Burkhalter, the president of Switzerland which holds the OSCE presidency, told reporters when asked about the timing of further European Union sanctions on Russia. "I'm sure a reasonable way in the situation would be to give more chance to the process, that means to the ceasefire to be respected and the process to be started in the direction of a real political process," he said. (Reporting by Jan Lopatka and Jason Hovet; Editing by Toby Chopra)