A German court on Thursday jailed four men for up to nine years for plotting to detonate home-made bombs in a crowd on the orders of jihadist militant network al-Qaida.

The "Duesseldorf cell", named after the western city where three of the men lived, had planned the attack but not yet decided on a target, the court found.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is to meet his German counterpart in Moscow next week for talks on the escalating conflict in Ukraine, Moscow said Thursday.

"On November 18 we are expecting a visit from German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier," Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said at a televised briefing.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday warned there are signs that pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine are readying for major military clashes with troops of the Western-leaning government.

Steinmeier said there were signs, supported by Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitors, of "new movements that indicate that the separatists are preparing for major violent confrontations".

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Tuesday voiced concern about escalating violence in the Israel-Palestinian conflict and urged progress toward a two-state solution.

"We need a Palestinian state living in peace and security next to the Israeli state," said Europe's top diplomat in Berlin, after recently visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas said the number of Syrians seeking refuge in Lebanon has been dropping although a decision on not to accept more refugees hasn't been fully implemented yet.

The UNHCR reports show that the number of refugees in Lebanon began to decline, Derbas told An Nahar newspaper in remarks published on Tuesday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday that the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago was a message to a conflict-torn world that "dreams can come true".

She spoke as Germany celebrated the milestone on November 9, 1989, that ended its Cold War division by throwing a huge open-air party at Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate.

Queen Elizabeth was to lead Britain in paying silent tribute to the Commonwealth war dead on Remembrance Sunday, a century on from the start of World War I.

The 88-year-old monarch was to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph national war memorial in London, accompanied by senior members of the royal family and prime ministers past and present.

Germany marks 25 years since the euphoric fall of the Berlin Wall Sunday with more than a million people expected to join tributes, festivities and an open-air party with freedom icons and rock stars.

Chancellor Angela Merkel leads commemorations for those killed trying to flee communist East Germany, ahead of a giant festival to celebrate the peaceful revolution that ended Europe's Cold War division on November 9, 1989.

Hundreds of thousands of people descended on the German capital Saturday for festivities to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago, stirring emotions and bringing memories flooding back of its joyous toppling.

Under chilly but sunny skies, people streamed between key points of the Wall's former path where information boards recount the monumental events of November 9, 1989 when a peaceful revolution led to the border's opening after 28 years. 

The United States is putting Hungary under "great pressure" over its energy ties to Russia because of the Ukraine crisis, Prime Minister Viktor Orban was quoted as saying for the first time Friday.

"The U.S. is putting Hungary under great pressure," Hungarian media cited Orban as saying in Munich, Germany late Thursday after a meeting with Bavarian state premier Horst Seehofer.