MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend this month's United Nations General Assembly in New York, Russian news wire quoted his spokesman as saying on Saturday.

U.S. President Donald Trump, a frequent critic of the United Nations, will seek to gather global support for reforming the world body when he hosts an event at U.N. headquarters in New York on September 18, a day before he formally addresses the 193-member organization.

It was not immediately clear if Putin had planned to attend the event initially.