U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin had what a senior U.S. official described as a "brief encounter" on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Beijing.
Reports on November 10 cited the unnamed U.S. official as saying Obama and Putin "didn't have time to cover issues" during their short meeting.
The two leaders have been deeply at odds over Russia's role in the Ukraine conflict and the Kremlin's support for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Russian news agency Interfax reported on the encounter, saying, "The U.S. president was the first to greet Putin. Putin greeted Obama in return and the two presidents started talking."
Interfax said the conversation lasted five minutes.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said he had no information about the meeting.
