US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met briefly Monday in Beijing on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific summit of APEC, a senior US official said.

US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met briefly Monday in Beijing on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific summit of APEC, a senior US official said.

The two leaders, who have been engaged for months in a standoff over the crisis in Ukraine, "only had a brief encounter where they didn't have time to cover issues," the official said on condition of anonymity.