US President Donald Trump, who is fighting allegations of ties between his election campaign and Moscow, says he wants to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House but now is not the right time.
The Republican president drew criticism last week from Democrats who accused him of not pressing Putin hard enough at a meeting they held in Germany over Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential campaign.
Accusations Moscow meddled in the election and colluded with the Trump campaign have dominated Trump's first months in office.
Russia denies meddling and Trump says there was no collusion.
Trump's comments came as he defended his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, who met with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 presidential campaign after he was told she might have damaging information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Trump has said he wants to work with Moscow on issues like Syria and told reporters travelling with him on Air Force One to Paris he was open to the idea of inviting Putin to the White House at some point.
"I don't think this is the right time but the answer is yes, I would," when asked if he would extend such an invitation to the Russian leader.
The comments were released by the White House on Thursday.
Trump said on Wednesday he had asked Putin last week if he was involved in Russian interference in the campaign.
"I said, 'Did you do it?' And he said, 'No, I did not. Absolutely not.' I then asked him a second time in a totally different way. He said absolutely not," Trump said.
He asked reporters on Air Force One what more he could have done.
Trump asked: "What do you do? End up in a fistfight with somebody, OK?"
Trump also disputed that Putin ever claimed Trump had accepted his denials, insisting Putin "didn't say that".
Putin had said it seemed to him Trump had "agreed" but added "it's better to ask him about his attitude".
