<p class="title">Russian president Vladimir Putin is "ready for a meeting" with his US counterpart Donald Trump, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Moscow's chief diplomat added that such a summit was not currently being discussed but the Kremlin hopes that a meeting at the White House would materialise.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"President Putin is ready for such a meeting," Lavrov said in an interview with state news agency RIA Novosti.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We are proceeding from the fact that the US president in a telephone conversation -- that was made public, there is no secret about this -- sent such an invitation and said that he would be happy to see (Putin) in the White House and then to meet him during a reciprocal visit."</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Since Trump suggested this, we proceed from the fact that he will make this concrete," he added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Trump proposed a White House summit when he called Putin last month, prior to the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats from the US.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The proposal has not moved forward since relations between the US and Russia deteriorated further over an alleged chemical attack in Syria.</p>.<p class="bodytext">During the interview, Lavrov also said Moscow welcomed an expected summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un, the leader of nuclear-armed North Korea.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We cannot wish this meeting failure," Lavrov said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"This would be a step away from the prospect of a military crisis and a military solution to the problem that is the Korean peninsula," he added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We very much hope that he (Trump) starts the process of de-escalating tensions."</p>.<p class="bodytext">The odds of the Trump-Kim summit taking place were boosted by the shock news earlier this week that CIA chief Mike Pompeo had gone to Pyongyang to meet Kim for the most significant US-North Korea contact in almost two decades.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Lavrov compared the US and North Korean statements prior to the meeting to tensions between "boxers" before a match.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Before the start of serious conversations it is like boxers entering the ring, showing off in front of one another before the fight," he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Russia has relatively warm ties with North Korea, with which it shares a small land border.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The United States earlier this year accused Russia of helping Pyongyang evade some international sanctions by supplying fuel to the isolated country.</p>
<p class="title">Russian president Vladimir Putin is "ready for a meeting" with his US counterpart Donald Trump, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Moscow's chief diplomat added that such a summit was not currently being discussed but the Kremlin hopes that a meeting at the White House would materialise.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"President Putin is ready for such a meeting," Lavrov said in an interview with state news agency RIA Novosti.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We are proceeding from the fact that the US president in a telephone conversation -- that was made public, there is no secret about this -- sent such an invitation and said that he would be happy to see (Putin) in the White House and then to meet him during a reciprocal visit."</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Since Trump suggested this, we proceed from the fact that he will make this concrete," he added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Trump proposed a White House summit when he called Putin last month, prior to the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats from the US.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The proposal has not moved forward since relations between the US and Russia deteriorated further over an alleged chemical attack in Syria.</p>.<p class="bodytext">During the interview, Lavrov also said Moscow welcomed an expected summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un, the leader of nuclear-armed North Korea.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We cannot wish this meeting failure," Lavrov said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"This would be a step away from the prospect of a military crisis and a military solution to the problem that is the Korean peninsula," he added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We very much hope that he (Trump) starts the process of de-escalating tensions."</p>.<p class="bodytext">The odds of the Trump-Kim summit taking place were boosted by the shock news earlier this week that CIA chief Mike Pompeo had gone to Pyongyang to meet Kim for the most significant US-North Korea contact in almost two decades.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Lavrov compared the US and North Korean statements prior to the meeting to tensions between "boxers" before a match.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Before the start of serious conversations it is like boxers entering the ring, showing off in front of one another before the fight," he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Russia has relatively warm ties with North Korea, with which it shares a small land border.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The United States earlier this year accused Russia of helping Pyongyang evade some international sanctions by supplying fuel to the isolated country.</p>