Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (L) and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry leave after their bilateral meeting at the APEC Ministers Summit in Lima, Peru November 17, 2016. REUTERS/Mark Ralston/Pool

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed “normalization” of the situation in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It did not elaborate about the “task of normalization”. It said they also discussed by telephone the need for the start of inter-Syria peace talks without preliminary conditions.