Slovenia would be a good place for a first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, Russia's Vladimir Putin said on Friday, but he said the choice of venue would not be Moscow's alone.

Putin made the comments after Slovenian President Borut Pahor offered Ljubljana, his country's capital, as a venue for a meeting between the Russian and U.S. leaders who have not met since Trump's inauguration last month.

Trump and Putin have both said they would like to try to mend battered U.S.-Russia ties, which fell to their lowest level since the Cold War after Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea.

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Receptive: Slovenia's president Borut Pahor met Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Friday and put to him the idea of his country being the host for talks between him and Donald Trump

'Brilliant': Putin suggested the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana would be ideal for a summit with the new American president

Putin made it clear that no date for such a meeting had yet been agreed, but said he was keen to try to restore Russian-U.S. relations in full.

'As regards Ljubljana, Slovenia in general, it is of course a brilliant place to have a dialog of such a sort.

'But it doesn't depend only on us, it depends on a whole series of circumstances,' Putin told reporters after meeting Pahor in Moscow.

'If these meetings ever happen, we don't have anything against Ljubljana,' Putin said.

European Union member state Slovenia was the venue for the first meeting between George W. Bush and Putin in 2001 where the then American leader made what became a famous comment about looking Putin in the eye and getting 'a sense of his soul.'

It is also where Melania Trump, the U.S. president's wife, was born and grew up, when it was part of the former Yugoslavia.

The Kremlin sees Slovenia as an ally in its quest to end Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict.

Russia was a big export market for Slovenian food products before the Ukraine crisis, and Slovenia remains keen to be a transit country for Russian gas supplies to southern Europe.

Putin also offered his most extensive comments yet on his relationship with a Trump White House, saying that he welcomes Trump's statements about his intentions to restore the strained Russia-U.S. ties.

'We always welcomed that and we hope that relations will be restored in full in all areas,' Putin said.

Native territory: Melania Trump was born and brought up in what is now Slovenia. Slovene is her first language

Meeting place: Slovenia is trying to improve economic relations with Russia

'It relates to trade and economic ties, security issues and various regions of the world, which are suffering from numerous conflicts.

'By pooling our efforts, we naturally would be able to significantly contribute to solving those issues, including the fight against international terrorism.'

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he's looking forward to an opportunity to talk to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Germany, where they both will attend a security conference and a meeting of the G-20 foreign ministers next week.

Lavrov told NTV television that Putin and Trump agreed about the need to meet soon during their phone call on Jan. 28 and told diplomats to negotiate the time and venue.

In recent years, Russia-U.S. relations have plunged to post-Cold war lows over the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and the allegations of Russia hacking of the Democrats in the U.S. presidential election.

In 2001, Slovenia hosted Putin's first meeting with former U.S. President George W. Bush that led to a short-lived thaw in relations between Moscow and Washington. A similarly short warm spell early during Barack Obama's presidency gave way to new tensions.

As part of Obama's early effort to 'reset' ties with Moscow, the two nations in 2010 signed a pivotal arms control pact that set new lower caps on the number of warheads each country can deploy.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the prospects of extending the New START Treaty that is set to expire in 2021 will 'depend on the position of our American partners' and require negotiations.

He wouldn't say whether the Kremlin favors extending the pact that limited Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads each.

Meeting: Rex Tillerson (left) is to meet Sergei Lavrov, his Russian opposite number, for the first time next week in Germany, at a meeting of G-20 foreign ministers

Deja vu: Slovenia was the venue for the first meeting between George W. Bush and Putin in 2001 where the then American leader made what became a famous comment about looking Putin in the eye and getting 'a sense of his soul'

Speaking in a conference call with reporters, Peskov pointed to a 'certain break in dialog on strategic security issues' during the Obama administration, and said Moscow and Washington now need 'an update of information and positions.'

Peskov on Friday denied a report by the Washington Post claiming that Michael Flynn, the retired general who is now Trump's national security adviser, had discussed a possible review of anti-Russian sanctions with the Russian ambassador to Washington in December.

Peskov said Ambassador Sergei Kislyak did talk to Flynn, but the rest of the report was wrong.

While suggesting possible cooperation with Moscow to fight the Islamic State group in Syria, as a candidate Trump was critical of the New START and talked about a need to strengthen U.S. nuclear arsenals.

In December, Trump declared on Twitter that the U.S. should 'greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability' until the rest of the world 'comes to its senses' regarding nuclear weapons.

Putin also has said strengthening Russia's nuclear capabilities should be among the nation's priorities.

The platform of Trump's Republican Party had promised to 'abandon arms control treaties that benefit our adversaries without improving our national security' and called for the development of 'a multi-layered missile defense system.'

Kislyak told Russian media in Washington that he sees little chance for a compromise on missile defense, as Moscow believes the U.S. wants to develop the shield against Russia despite assurances that it's directed against other threats.

'I don't exclude that at a certain stage we may have a mutual interest to talk about those issues, but as of now I'm not seeing any basis for reaching agreement,' he said, according to the Interfax news agency.

He voiced hope, however, that joint efforts to fight the IS could help break the ice in Russia-U.S. ties. 'If we have serious cooperation, it could help to start rebuilding trust,' Kislyak said in televised remarks.