Merkel holds talks with Putin on rare Russia visit

German Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks yesterday with President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine and Syria in a signal of renewed dialogue despite profound rifts on her first visit to Russia since 2015.

"We cannot but use this visit to discuss bilateral relations and the most problematic points, by which I mean Ukraine and Syria and maybe some other regions," Putin told Merkel at the start of the meeting in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

The Russian and German leaders have scaled back links as Moscow's ties with the EU plunged to a post-Cold War low over the crisis in Ukraine.

Berlin has said yesterday's meeting would "above all" focus on the upcoming G20 summit in Hamburg in July and no breakthroughs were expected on major disagreements, although Putin earlier called for ties "to fully normalise."

Merkel has strongly backed EU sanctions on Russia for seizing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and supporting the pro-Kremlin separatist insurgency in the east of the country.

Moscow has responded with an embargo on agricultural products from the West. A European-brokered peace plan to end the conflict has hit a dead end.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump was set to speak with Russia's Vladimir Putin by phone yesterday as the two leaders look to make headway on ties in the face of deep rifts over Syria and alleged hacking.

Both the White House and Kremlin confirmed the leaders will hold their third call since Trump took office but did not give details on the topics of discussion.