US-Russia ties worse under Trump: Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin said ties with the United States have deteriorated under the administration of Donald Trump as their top diplomats locked horns yesterday over the Syrian conflict.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held several hours of talks with Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow in what he said was an attempt to narrow "areas of sharp difference", but Washington's envoy was kept waiting over whether he would meet Putin.

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The powers are at odds over the fate of Moscow's long time ally President Bashar al-Assad, a rift exacerbated after an alleged Syrian chemical attack last week that triggered a punitive US missile strike.

Russia has slammed Washington's attack on a Syrian airbase and, as the top diplomats met, Putin admitted that relations between Washington and Moscow have worsened in the three months that Trump has been in office.

"You can say that the level of trust on a working level, especially on the military side, has not improved but most likely worsened," Putin said in the transcript of an interview with Mir television released by the Kremlin.

At the start of his meeting with Lavrov, Tillerson said he wanted to "clarify areas of common objectives, areas of common interest -- even where our tactical approaches may be different -- and further clarify areas of sharp difference."

He was expected to challenge Russia to distance itself from Assad and his Iranian backers, an idea that the Kremlin dismissed as "absurd" amid a war of words between the two sides.

In a further indication of the stark differences, Russia also slammed as "unacceptable" a proposed UN resolution put forward by the US, Britain and France on the alleged chemical attack, and said it would veto it in its current form at a vote.

 REAL INTENTIONS

At their meeting, Lavrov told Tillerson Moscow was hoping to understand Washington's "real intentions" and warned that Moscow considered it "fundamentally important" to prevent more "unlawful" US strikes against its ally Syria.

He said the visit -- the first to Moscow by a senior Trump administration official -- offered an opportunity to clarify the chances of cooperation "above all on the formation of a broad anti-terrorist front".

Despite hopes of an improvement in ties under Trump, the fallout over the alleged chemical attack and US bombing meant the Syrian conflict -- in which more than 320,000 people have died -- has dominated Tillerson's visit.

US officials have suggested Russian forces may have colluded in the latest atrocity blamed on Assad's regime, and it remained unclear if Tillerson will be invited to meet Putin.

Ahead of the talks, far from trying to calm tempers, both sides escalated their rhetoric as the US tried to prise Moscow and Damascus apart.

Putin accused Assad's opponents of planning to stage chemical attacks to be blamed on Damascus in order to lure the United States deeper into the conflict.

The Kremlin leader again slammed the US missile strike and angrily rejected the allegation that Assad's forces were behind the suspected chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhun that left 87 civilians dead including children.

"Where is the proof that Syrian troops used chemical weapons? There isn't any. But there was a violation of international law. That is an obvious fact," Putin told Mir.

The United Nations peace envoy for Syria yesterday urged the United States and Russia to agree on a way forward to end the war in Syria and pave the way for a "real negotiation."

Special envoy Staffan de Mistura told the UN Security Council that he was ready to convene a new round of talks in May but that US-Russian cooperation was needed.

The two countries have "serious differences" but also a "common interest" in ending the six-year war that has killed 320,000 people, De Mistura said.

"They must find a way to work together to stabilize the situation in a deliberate, realistic and concerted way in support of the political process," he said.