President Donald Trump held talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in which he invited him to the United States, RIA Novosti reported on Friday, citing the Russian Foreign Ministry. “We proceed from the fact that the US president in a telephone conversation...made such an invitation, said he would be glad to see (Putin) in the White House, would then be glad to meet on a reciprocal visit,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, according to a transcript of an interview with RIA on the foreign ministry website. The news agency quoted Lavrov as saying Trump returned to the subject of an invitation a couple of times during a call last month and that Russia was now expecting Trump to formalize the invitation. “He returned to this topic a couple of times, so we let our American colleagues know that we do not want to impose, but we also do not want to be impolite, and that considering that President Trump made this proposal, we proceed from the position that he will make it concrete.” Moscows chief diplomat added that a summit was not currently being discussed but the Kremlin hopes that a meeting at the White House would materialize. "President Putin is ready for such a meeting," Lavrov told RIA. Trump proposed a White House summit when he called Putin on March 20, prior to the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats from the US. Rolling out a welcome for Putin in the White House could anger Trump’s domestic critics, who accuse Russia of hostile acts against Western countries, including the United States. “I would simply turn your attention to the fact that Donald Trump after this phone conversation has said several times in both Tweets and in words that it is necessary to resolve issues with Russia, we want to have good relations with Russia, this is better than not having good relations, and that only a fool thinks otherwise,” Lavrov said. “We also hear this.” The prospects of holding a US-Russia summit the White House have not improved, especially since relations between the two sides deteriorated further over a chemical attack in Syria on April 7. During the interview, Lavrov also said Moscow welcomed an expected summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un, the leader of nuclear-armed North Korea. "We cannot wish this meeting failure," Lavrov said. "This would be a step away from the prospect of a military crisis and a military solution to the problem that is the Korean peninsula," he added. "We very much hope that he (Trump) starts the process of de-escalating tensions." Russia has relatively warm ties with North Korea, with which it shares a small land border. The United States earlier this year accused Russia of helping Pyongyang evade some international sanctions by supplying fuel to the isolated country.