MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday that President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed in a phone call that both countries were ready to increase coordination of military action in Syria.
Relations between Russia and the United States have been strained by disagreements over the conflict in Syria, where Moscow and Washington are backing opposing sides in the civil war.
The Kremlin said in a statement that Putin had used the call to urge Obama to aid the separation of the "moderate" opposition in Syria from the Nusra Front and other "extremist" groups.
It said the phone call took place on the initiative of Russia and that both sides had also stressed the importance of United Nations-brokered peace talks restarting.
Aside from Syria, the Kremlin statement said Putin and Obama discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh and Ukraine conflicts.
Putin reiterated the Minsk peace agreements on Ukraine must be fulfilled by Kiev and said Russia wanted a peace process over Nagorno-Karabakh to progress.
There was no immediate comment from Washington on the Putin-Obama phone call.
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