France on Sunday urged oil producers to cap the price of the commodity in order to put the squeeze on Russia which is benefiting from soaring energy prices.
Paris backs a US proposal for a maximum oil price, but said that "it would be much more powerful if it came from the producing countries," said the French presidency.
To make such a measure work, it was "necessary to get into a discussion with OPEC+ and with the world's oil producers," said the source, referring to the 23-country group.
The United States had suggested a price cap decided by consuming countries, a proposal that is due to be discussed by G7 leaders meeting in the Bavarian Alps on Sunday.
But Germany believes that the measure would be too difficult to put in place.
A senior German official said "we are still intensively discussing how this would work and how that can fit in with the American, British, European and Japanese sanction regimes."
EU President Charles Michel also said discussions were ongoing but "we want to go more into the details".
"We want to make sure that ... the goal is to target Russia and not to make our life more difficult and more complex," he said.
