US President Donald Trump says his plan for a swift meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin is on hold because he doesn't want it to be a "waste of time."

It was the latest twist in Trump's stop-and-go effort to resolve the war in Ukraine.

The decision to hold off on the meeting in Budapest which Trump had announced last week, was made following a call between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

"I don't want to have a wasted meeting," Trump said. "I don't want to have a waste of time - so we'll see what happens."

Trump's hesitancy will likely come as a relief to European leaders, who have accused Putin of stalling for time with diplomacy while trying to gain ground on the battlefield.

The US and Russian presidents last met in Alaska in August

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