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Russia willing to improve ties with U.S.: Kremlin

Xinhua, September 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Kremlin on Tuesday reaffirmed its willingness to improve relations with Washington and the hope to conduct more dialogues.

"Russia has always said, and we have been confirming it at various levels, that it is interested in the development of bilateral relations as well as mutually beneficial dialogue," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

"Currently there is at least a certain readiness to cooperate on and resolve tense issues such as the Syrian crisis," RIA Novosti news agency quoted Peskov as saying.

He added that an intensive working-level dialogue on Syria between Russia and the United States would resume as soon as possible, stressing that "the main thing" to settle the crisis is to exchange anti-terrorism information.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday told the UN General Assembly that an anti-terror information center would be established in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

Earlier, Russian media reported that the center was a joint initiative of Russia, Syria, Iran and Iraq in order to coordinate the fight against the extremist group Islamic State (IS).

"Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama discussed the anti-terrorism information exchange issue during their meeting on Monday," Peskov said. "This is the main thing at the current stage, and other decisions would be made considering how the situation would develop."

The spokesman also reiterated that isolating Russia is counterproductive especially when resolving key problems like Syria.

"Putin said the anti-terror information coordination center is not an isolated institution. It is open absolutely to all," according to Peskov.

Putin and Obama on Monday traded criticism over Syria and Ukraine in their separate speeches at the General Assembly before they held talks on these issues.

The crisis in Ukraine has caused a nosedive of the relationship between Washington and Moscow. Washington and its Western allies slapped rounds of sanctions on Russia for its annexation of Crimea and its alleged military involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Endi