President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday discussed the MH17 plane crash with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on the sidelines of an APEC summit, with both leaders favoring a "genuine" probe of the tragedy, the Kremlin said.

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday discussed the MH17 plane crash with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on the sidelines of an APEC summit, with both leaders favoring a "genuine" probe of the tragedy, the Kremlin said.

"The catastrophe of the Malaysian airliner was the main topic of discussion between Vladimir Putin and Tony Abbott," the Kremlin said in a statement after the leaders met at the APEC summit in Beijing.

"The leaders have robustly spoken out in favor of speeding up the investigation of the reasons for the tragedy."

"The unacceptability of a situation when experts cannot get to the crash site has been noted," the Kremlin added.

"Vladimir Putin stressed that from the very beginning Russia consistently demanded that the investigation be unbiased, quick and effective."

Separately, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the RIA Novosti that Abbott did not appear to deliver on his threat.

Asked if Abbott managed to "shirtfront" the Russian leader over the loss of Australian lives, Peskov said: "It appears that he did not try."
Abbott had vowed ahead of the talks that the conversation would be "robust."