The White House has confirmed reports that US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a second, previously undisclosed meeting during a dinner for G20 leaders and their partners in Hamburg.
Revealing the meeting, Ian Bremmer, president of the international consulting firm Eurasia Group, said the two men had a "very animated and very friendly" discussion.
However, "there is no official United States government record of the intimate dinner conversation, because no American official other than the president was involved," the New York Times reports.
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According to CNN, US presidents often hold private and impromptu discussions with other world leaders at summits, but "the lack of immediate disclosure from the administration as well as Trump's own posture with regard to Russia raised significant questions following reports of the discussion having taken place".
Both Trump and the White House sought to downplay the meeting, which officials said was a "brief conversation". The US President derided the reports as "fake news".
There is increasing concern over alleged collusion between Trump's presidential campaign team and Russia, which have prompted several investigations in the US.
Last week, Donald Trump Jr admitted he had met Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in the hope of getting damaging information about his father's campaign rival Hillary Clinton.
The New York Times has identified two other people who were also at the meeting: Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin and Russian businessman Irakly Kaveladze.
