Russia says President Vladimir Putin will attend next month's UN General Assembly in New York and would consider meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama at the UN.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on August 19 that Putin would "positively" consider a request from Washington to meet.
Relations between Russia and the West are at a post-Cold War low because of Moscow's forcible seizure of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and Russia's involvement in the fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow denies arming separatists fighting against Ukrainian troops or having any Russian troops in Ukraine, despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
More than 6,400 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since fighting began 16 months ago.
Obama thanked Putin via phone for Moscow's part in agreeing to a nuclear deal with Iran in July.
The two last met face-to-face in November, and Putin has not made any official visits to the United States since returning as president for a third term in mid-2012.
