VLADIMIR PUTIN has reiterated that support for Syria’s government is the only way to defeat Islamic State (Isis), ahead of a meeting with Barack Obama yesterday.

The Russian president (pictured) was set to meet his US counterpart Mr Obama on the sidelines of the annual UN general assembly session in New York.

While the White House claimed that the meeting would focus on the civil war in Ukraine, the Kremlin insisted that the first item on the agenda would be the Syrian conflict.

In an interview on the 60 Minutes current affairs programme on Sunday, Mr Putin said: “There is no other solution to the Syrian crisis than strengthening the effective government structures and rendering them help in fighting terrorism.”

Responding to repeated allegations in Western and Israeli media that Russia is sending troops to fight in Syria, the Russian president said that personnel were only training Syrian troops and providing humanitarian aid.

“We act based on the United Nations Charter, the fundamental principles of modern international law, according to which this or that type of aid, including military assistance, can and must be provided exclusively to the legitimate government of one country or another,” he said.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani echoed Mr Putin on Sunday when he said that if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was overthrown, “the terrorists will enter Damascus immediately.”

“If we are to succeed in defeating terrorism, the government in Damascus cannot be weakened,” he said. “It must be able to carry on the fight.”

With Washington backing the Kiev coup regime in Ukraine — on Russia’s western frontier — and rebel groups trying to overthrow the government of Moscow ally Mr Assad, both wars have brought the two powers into confrontation.

But with the failure of Washington’s ostensible war against Isis highlighted by US-trained and equipped guerillas handing over their weapons to the extremist Nusra Front, Russia and Iran’s arguments have been strengthened.

In another blow to the US position, Iraqi President Haider al-Abadi announced in a speech broadcast yesterday that his government welcomed Moscow’s commitment to fighting Isis and would share intelligence with Russia, Iran and Syria.