Merkel holds talks with Putin on Ukraine and Syria

Sochi, Russia

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks on Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine and Syria in a signal of renewed dialogue despite profound rifts on her first visit to Russia since 2015.

"We cannot but use this visit to discuss bilateral relations and the most problematic points, by which I mean Ukraine and Syria and maybe some other regions," Mr Putin told Mrs Merkel at the start of the meeting in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

The Russian and German leaders have scaled back links as Moscow's ties with the European Union plunged to a post-Cold War low over the crisis in Ukraine.

Berlin has said Tuesday's meeting would "above all" focus on July's G-20 summit in Hamburg and no breakthroughs were expected on major di…