Rice meets with Russian FM amid tense ties

NEW YORK, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.

This was the first face-to-face meeting between the two since military conflicts between Russia and Georgia broke out and bilateral ties between the two countries got tense last month.

Rice and Lavrov smiled for the cameras as they sat down for talks in a luxury hotel here, but they declined to answer any questions from the media.

Nonetheless, Rice is expected to appeal for Russia's help in efforts to try to resolve the nuclear issues of Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

An angry Russia decided to cancel a planned meeting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany because of the U.S. blast on Russia over Georgia, a close U.S. ally.

The United States has condemned Russia's military conflicts with Georgia and urged Russia to pull its troops out of the country.