Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani in a phone call on Monday he hoped the two could work together to get a resolution for the Syria crisis as soon as possible, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The call, which the Kremlin said was at Iran's initiative, came on the eve of a meeting in Moscow of the foreign and defence ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey on Syria.

Putin wants to see new Syrian peace talks involving the Syrian government and the opposition get underway in Kazakhstan and is trying to build support for them.