Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump noted his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, had wanted Russia out of what used to be the G8 "because Putin outsmarted him."

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday it would be appropriate to let Russia join the G7 group of advanced industrialized countries.

Trump: "I think it would be asset to have Russia back in. I think it would be good for the world. I think it would be good for Russia. I think it would be good the United States ... I think the G8 would be better" https://t.co/SnAz2kciCs https://t.co/HAHzT4WCFI

"But I think it's much more appropriate to have Russia in. It should be the G8 because a lot of the things we talk about have to do with Russia," Trump said.

"I think to say that without any conditions Russia can return to the table would be signing off the weakness of the G7,” French President Emmanuel Macron told the French presidential press following Trump's remarks.

"It would be a strategic error for us and the consecration of this age of impunity.”

Macron said the Ukraine crisis had to be resolved before Russia could return to the fold even if it remained vital to continue discussing international crises with Moscow. The conflict between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 13,000 people since it broke out five years ago.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia would need to receive a formal, tangible proposal before considering a return to the group.

"It is necessary to move the discussion of this topic from the sphere of public entertainment to the professional one if the Group of Seven wants to position itself as a serious format," Interfax quoted her as saying.

Senior Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev balked at the idea of reviving the G8 and instead offered to include China and India into a G10.

“I think Russia’s return would make sense only if it’s possible to avoid the ‘seven against one’ trap,” Kosachev, the chairman of the international affairs committee in Russia’s upper house of parliament, wrote on Facebook.

Transforming the G7 into the G10, given the scale of China and India's economies and impacts on world politics, “would be a powerful phenomenon,” Kosachev wrote.