Russian Federation and United States agree modest steps to mend ties

Lavrov said Moscow was ready to resume a deal with Washington to avoid incidents in Syrian airspace as the two countries lead separate bombing campaigns.

From the moment he stepped foot in the White House, President Donald Trump has been dogged by his perceived warming to Russian Federation and his open admiration of President Vladimir Putin.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denied carrying out a chemical attack. But he says the U.S.is confident that the attack was planned, directed and executed by Syrian regime forces.

Lavrov said: "This is a subject where we disagree" with the U.S., Russian news agency TASS reported.

Putin also asserted that Syria has complied with an agreement to dispose of chemical weapons "so far as we know".

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, called on Moscow to stop protecting Assad and said the United States wants to work with Russian Federation toward a political solution for Syria.

But Russia, an ally of Syria, used its powers in the United Nations to block it.

Mr Tillerson also called for Assad to eventually relinquish power.

Diplomats said that Russian Federation has put forward a rival draft resolution that expresses concern at last week's gas attack and condemns the US strike on Syria. Mr Trump said it was "certainly possible" though "probably unlikely".

"We have seen very alarming actions recently with an unlawful attack against Syria", Lavrov said, referring to Trump's missile attack at a Syrian air base, launched to punish Assad for using chemical weapons.

China typically sides with Russian Federation in the Security Council, including in opposing US -backed measures to punish Syria for its use of chemical weapons. President Donald Trump at a news conference later spoke less-than-optimistically about whether the efforts would bear fruit. "I like to think they didn't know".

"There is a low level of trust between our countries", Tillerson told reporters at a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, after the first face-to-face meetings between Russian leaders and a top emissary of the Trump administration.

The U.S. military official said the Pentagon was examining specifically whether a Russian warplane had bombed a hospital in Khan Sheikhoun five hours after the initial chemical attack, with the aim of destroying evidence.

Still, Tillerson sought to stress the positives from his meetings.

"We are convinced that we need to have a full and immediate investigation, and the possibilities for that have not been exhausted", Safronkov said after the vote, accusing the resolution's sponsors of jumping to conclusions about responsibility before a full-fledged investigation.