The presidents of the United States and Russia have agreed on a United Nations role to end the bloodshed in Syria, as the Paris attacks jolted G20 leaders into seeking a united front against Islamic State jihadists.

Key points: G20 meeting world leaders vow to re-focus efforts to tackle Islamic State group

G20 meeting world leaders vow to re-focus efforts to tackle Islamic State group The meeting comes in the wake of the Paris attacks claimed by the group

The meeting comes in the wake of the Paris attacks claimed by the group The asylum seeker crisis stemming from Syria is a pivotal, related issue

Putting aside significant differences, US president Barack Obama and Russian president Vladimir Putin met on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Turkey on Sunday after the Paris bombing and shooting assaults which killed at least 129 people and sparked global outrage.

In images captured on Turkish public television, the leaders were seen leaning towards one another as they held animated talks on the fringes of the gathering of the Group of 20 leading world economies in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya.

"The conversation lasted approximately 35 minutes and centred around ongoing efforts to resolve the conflict in Syria, an imperative made all the more urgent by the horrifying terrorist attacks in Paris," a US official said.

The Kremlin said "divergences" remained on strategy but the tone was described as "constructive" by a US official.

It was the two presidents' first meeting since Russia launched an air campaign in Syria in September which the Kremlin insists is aimed against Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

The West, however, suspects Moscow's true aim is to target opponents of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Mr Obama and Mr Putin nevertheless agreed on the need for United Nations talks, a ceasefire and a transitional government in Syria, the US official said, seeking a way out of a four-year war in which IS has thrived, occupying large swathes of territory and displacing millions of people.

The strategy echoed a plan for Syria already forged by diplomats at talks in Vienna the previous day, but it still appeared to mark a perceptible thaw in the icy relations between the former Cold War foes and their leaders.



In a reminder of the global spread of jihadist extremists, Mr Obama condemned the Paris massacre as well as a double suicide bombing in Ankara that killed 102 people last month and offered his "deep condolences" to Mr Putin over the crash of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt that killed all 224 people aboard.

The West suspects the plane was downed by a bomb placed by IS.

Turkey also said it had foiled a major IS attack plot in its biggest city Istanbul on Friday, the same day as the Paris attacks.

US vows increased efforts

Mr Obama vowed to step up efforts to eliminate IS in Syria and prevent it from carrying out attacks like those in Paris, while European leaders urged Russia to focus its military efforts on the radical Islamists.

He described the killings in Paris as an attack on the civilised world and said the United States would work with France to hunt down those responsible.

Turkey's president Tayyip Erdogan and US president Barack Obama attend a working session at the G20 summit. ( Reuters: Murad Sezer )

But UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has warned against an overly-aggressive reaction to Paris.

"Our response needs to be robust but always within the rule of law and with respect for human rights, otherwise we will only fan the fire we are trying to put out," he told the media at the G20 venue.

The two-day summit brings Mr Obama and fellow world leaders just 500 kilometres from Syria, where a four-and-a-half-year conflict has transformed IS into a global security threat, and spawned Europe's largest migration flows since World War II.

"The skies have been darkened by the horrific attacks that took place in Paris just a day-and-a-half ago," Mr Obama said after meeting Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan.

"We will redouble our efforts, working with other members of the coalition, to bring about a peaceful transition in Syria and to eliminate Daesh as a force that can create so much pain and suffering for people in Paris, in Ankara, and in other parts of the globe," he said, using an alternative name for IS.

Mr Obama and his Western allies now face the question of how the West should respond after IS again demonstrated it posed a threat far beyond its strongholds in Syria and Iraq.

Washington already expects France to retaliate by taking on a larger role in the US-led coalition's bombing campaign.

"We're confident that in the coming days and weeks, working with the French, we will be able intensify our strikes against ISIL in both Syria and Iraq to make clear there is no safe haven for these terrorists," US deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said in an interview with NBC's Meet the Press.

But European Council president Donald Tusk said Russia too should focus its military operations on IS, rather than on the Syrian opposition battling president Bashar al-Assad, urging cooperation between Washington and Moscow.

"It should be our common aim to coordinate our actions against Daesh and for sure the cooperation between the United States and Russia is a crucial one," he said.

Assad's future remains a sticking point

Russia joined the conflict a month-and-a-half ago with air strikes in Syria, but has been targeting mainly areas where foreign-backed fighters are battling Assad, its ally, rather than Islamic State, its critics say.

Turkey and Western allies, by contrast, want Mr Assad out.

Ban Ki-moon said he welcomed the renewed sense of urgency to find a solution to the war in Syria after the Paris attacks, adding the world had a "rare moment" of diplomatic opportunity to end the violence.

Mr Obama is also seeking to coax other European and Middle Eastern countries into more tangible steps to show their military commitment and was expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Saudi Arabia's King Salman.

In a call last month, the two leaders affirmed the need to cooperate against IS.

Mr Obama said he had also discussed in his meeting with Mr Erdogan the progress made by foreign ministers in Vienna, who on Saturday outlined a plan for a political process in Syria leading to elections within two years, although differences over Mr Assad's fate still remained.

Migration concerns linger

The coordinated attacks by gunmen and suicide bombers in Paris on Friday put Mr Obama and other leaders of the world's major economies under increased pressure to find common cause.

It remains to be seen, however, whether Washington itself has an appetite for much deeper involvement after already stepping up air strikes and committing small numbers of special operations troops to northern Syria to advise opposition forces in the fight against IS.

The Paris carnage also poses a major challenge for Europe, with populist leaders rushing to demand an end to an influx of refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa.

Turkey's prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu says his country is willing to play ball, but with clear conditions. ( Reuters: Murad Sezer )

But in a diplomatic coup for Europe and for Turkey, the G20 leaders will agree that migration is a global problem that must be addressed in a coordinated way, according to a draft communique seen by Reuters, although it has yet to be accepted by all and is due to be published only on Monday.

Europe and Turkey, the most heavily hit by the crisis, had been pushing for the G20 to recognize the issue as a global problem and help to deal with it financially, despite opposition from China, India and Russia.

Turkey is housing some 2.2 million Syrian refugees, but the European Union has urged Ankara to do more to prevent migrants undertaking risky boat crossings to reach the EU.

European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker warned that the attacks in Paris should in no way poison the sensitive debate over refugees.

"Those who organised, who perpetrated the attacks are the very same people who the refugees are fleeing and not the opposite," Juncker said.

A million asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa are expected to come to Europe this year alone.

According to a separate statement due to be released later on Sunday, a draft of which was also seen by Reuters, they also agreed to step up border controls and aviation security in the wake of the Paris attacks, which they condemned as "heinous".

Discussions on climate change will assume greater importance than usual coming ahead of a UN climate conference in Paris at the end of the month that aims to agree a global pact to curb warming of the planet.

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius urged leaders to strengthen a planned G20 declaration on global warming, sources said.

Reuters