Washington: Russian efforts to interfere in upcoming US midterm elections have yet to reach the intensity of the Kremlin's campaign to disrupt the 2016 presidential vote, but they're only "a keyboard click away" from a more serious attack, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said.

"We have not seen that kind of robust campaign from them so far," Coats said in a briefing at the White House on Thursday.

Coats was among five top national security leaders -- including National Security Adviser John Bolton, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and General Paul Nakasone, director of the National Security Agency -- who blasted Russian efforts to interfere in US elections.

The White House is looking to tamp down criticism that President Donald Trump has appeared reluctant to hold Russia accountable for election tampering. He provoked an uproar at the July summit with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki by casting doubt on US intelligence findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.