Obama likely to discuss Syria with Putin during G-20 Summit

Will also meet Xi, Hollande in Russia

US President Barack Obama is likely to discuss Syria with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on the sidelines of the upcoming G-20 Summit, Secretary of State John Kerry has told top American lawmakers.

The White House also said Obama will meet privately this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Francois Hollande.

Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry urged lawmakers not to make a big issue out of the differences with Russia on Syria.

"I think it is important not to get into unnecessary struggle over this (differences with Russian) for a lot of reasons. The Russians are working with us and cooperating on this effort to try to make a negotiated process work. And I think they are serious about trying to find the way forward for that, number one," Kerry said.

On major issues like Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), North Korea and Iran, the Russians are cooperating with US, he added.

"We have to, sort of, deal with this thoughtfully and let's hope that the summit might produce some change of hard as the president makes the evidence available to president Putin," said the Secretary of State.

"The President is leaving this evening to go to St.Petersburg for the summit. He will have ample opportunity to hear firsthand from the President Putin, and I am confident they will have a discussion about it," Kerry said in response to a question from Senator Barbara Boxer.

The 2013 G-20 Russia summit will be the eighth meeting of the G-20 heads of government. The venue of the two day-summit is St. Petersburg in Russia.

Russia does not have an ideological commitment in Syria, Kerry said.

"This is a geopolitical transactional commitment. And our indications are in many regards that is the way they view it. There may be more weapons to sell, as a result of weapons sold, but it's not gonna elicit some kind of major confrontation," he said.

"They have condemned the use of chemical weapons. The Russians have. The Iranians have. And as the proof of the use becomes even more clear in the course of this debate, I think it is gonna be very difficult for Iran or Russia to decide against all that evidence that there is something worth defending here," Kerry said.