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French President Emmanuel Macron hosted the leaders of six other EU states for a summit in Corsica in the hope of finding common ground ahead of the next EU summit this month, France 24 reported.

France has strongly backed Greece and Cyprus in a growing standoff with Turkey over hydrocarbon resources and naval influence in the eastern Mediterranean, which has sparked fears of more severe conflict.

The final statement of the leaders made clear that sanctions were on the table if Turkey failed to end its "confrontational actions".

"We regret that Turkey has not responded to the repeated calls by the European Union to end its unilateral and illegal activities in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea," the communique said.

"We maintain that in absence of progress in engaging Turkey into a dialogue and unless it ends its unilateral activities, the EU is ready to develop a list of further restrictive measures," the leaders said, adding these could be discussed at the European Council on 24-25 September.

"We Europeans need to be clear and firm with the government of president Erdogan, which today is behaving in an unacceptable manner," Macron told reporters before the summit began.

He said that at the moment Turkey was "no longer a partner in the region" of the eastern Mediterranean due to its behaviour.

Macron added that Turkey had "intensified provocations in a way that is not worthy of a great state. The Turkish people are a great people and deserve something else".