U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold a joint news conference after their meeting in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

HELSINKI (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he had raised the issue of alleged Russian meddling in U.S. elections in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

“We spent great deal of time talking about it. He feels strongly about the issue and has an interesting idea,” Trump told a joint news conference with Putin in the Finnish capital Helsinki.

Putin denied any such interference, saying the allegations were “complete nonsense”.

U.S. intelligence agencies believe the Kremlin acted to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election in which Trump won over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.