COPENHAGEN, May 27 (Reuters) - A Danish government minister said on Tuesday that four missing monitors from European security watchdog the OSCE, including a Dane, were believed detained by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) earlier said it had lost contact with one of its teams of civilian monitors near the city of Donetsk, where rebels are clashing with Ukrainian government forces.

"I can confirm that a Danish person deployed as a part of OSCE's (monitoring mission) according to our knowledge was detained by the armed separatists in Ukraine along with three other observers yesterday," Danish Minister of Trade and Development Mogens Jensen said. (Reporting by Annabella Pultz Nielsen; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Alison Williams)

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