U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he would hold talks on the war in Syria with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of a summit next week in Laos.
Kerry will attend the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Vientiane along with top diplomats from Russia and China on July 24.
Kerry held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lavrov in Moscow last week, striking an agreement on "concrete steps" to salvage a failing cease-fire and restart long-stalled peace talks.
"We would take stock of where our negotiation is" at the Laos summit, Kerry told reporters in Vienna on July 22.
"In the event there are brackets around certain things or issues that are not resolved by the current discussions, he and I will have to resolve them," he said.
Syrian peace talks have stalled and a cease-fire brokered by Russia and the United States in February has largely collapsed amid heavy fighting.
But U.S. President Barack Obama is insisting on keeping dialogue with Moscow open on Syria, Kerry said.
"The president...has authorized and ordered this track," he said.
