In a speech lasting nearly 20 minutes, the French leader called on fellow leaders to “fight for peace”.

Mr Macron urged leaders to “fight for peace”
“Ruining this hope with a fascination for withdrawal, violence or domination would be a mistake for which future generations would rightly find us responsible,” he said.

The service ended with the bugle call that was played at 11:00 on 11 November 1918 to signal the end of hostilities.

In another development,  German Chancellor Angela Merkel attended a peace conference – the Paris Peace Forum – with leaders including Mr Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Mrs Merkel warned that “blinkered” nationalism was gaining ground in Europe and elsewhere.

Mr Macron and Mrs Merkel visited the town of Compiègne, north of Paris. They signed a book of remembrance in a railway carriage identical to the one in which the 1918 Armistice was sealed.

What has Trump been doing?
Mr Trump did not attend the peace conference and left for the US shortly after it began.

Earlier he visited a cemetery in Suresnes in western Paris, saying he had gone there “to pay tribute to brave Americans” who died in the war.

He caused controversy on Saturday by cancelling a trip to another cemetery for the war dead because of bad weather.

Protesters from the feminist group Femen also held up placards in front of the Arc de Triomphe before being led away

Earlier on Sunday, just before the leaders assembled, a topless female protester with the words “fake peacemaker” written on her chest came within a few metres of the US president’s motorcade before being apprehended.

A group of about 50 activist groups plan to hold a protest in Paris against his visit later.

What events took place elsewhere?
In Australia, a ceremony was held at the National War Memorial in Canberra, while in Adelaide an aircraft dropped thousands of red paper poppies.

During his speech in Canberra, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke of the importance of remembrance, saying people need “to learn from the past so that we can better navigate the changing currents of our own times”.

In New Zealand, a gun salute took place in the capital, Wellington.

And in India, memorials were held for the 74,000 troops who died fighting on the other side of the world.

“This was a war in which India was not directly involved, yet our soldiers fought world-over, just for the cause of peace,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted on Sunday.

Meanwhile in the UK, a series of special events is being held to mark the end of the 1914-18 conflict.