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Trump accepts Putin's claims that Russia did not meddle in US election, says Russian foreign minister Trump accepts Putin's claims that Russia did not meddle in US election, says Russian foreign minister
(35 minutes later)
Donald Trump accepted Vladimir Putin's assurance that Moscow did not interfere in the 2016 US election, according to Russia's foreign minister. Russian foreign minister has claimed Donald Trump accepted Vladimir Putin’s assurances that Russia did not meddle in the US presidential election. 
  After the two leaders emerged from a meeting that lasted two hours and sixteen minutes - at one point, First Lady Melania Trump entered the room to hurry them along - US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Mr Trump had raised the issue of Moscow’s alleged cyber-meddling in the election at the start of their conversation.
He said the US had talked about such attacks represented a “threat to the democratic process”.
“The president opened the meeting raising the concerns of the American people about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election,” said Mr Tillerson. “They had a very lengthy and robust conversation on this”
He said Mr Trump pushed him on the issue and that Mr Putin stood firm in his denial.
“I think the president is rightly focused on how do we move forward from something that may be an intractable disagreement at this point,” Mr Tillerson said.
In his own briefing to reporters, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Mr Trump accepted Putin's assurances that Russia did not meddle in the election.
Mr Trump left the scene of his conversation with Mr Putin, to head to Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, a concert that is the venue for a formal G20 dinner. He was accompanied by the First Lady Melania Trump.
Earlier, the US President had spoken to reporters as he and Mr Putin posed for photographs before their discussions, accompanied only by their translators, Mr Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“President Putin and I have been discussing various things, and I think it’s going very well,” said Mr Trump. “We look forward to a lot of very positive happenings for Russia and for the United States, and for everyone concerned.”
For his part, Mr Putin said he was happy to be able to meet Mr Trump in person. 
“We spoke over the phone but phone conversations are never enough, definitely,” he said. “I hope that, as you have said, our meetings will yield positive results.”