U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation on Saturday in which they "stressed the importance of rebuilding mutually beneficial trade and economic ties," according to the Kremlin. 

Trump had previously said he wanted a "good relationship" with Russia, the LA Times reported, but would not say if he would lift U.S. sanctions.

In 2014, the U.S. - along with the European Union, Australia, Canada, and Norway - imposed sanctions on the ex-Soviet country for its involvement in the Ukraine crisis, to which Russia responded by banning agricultural imports from those regions.

The Kremlin said that during the recent phone call, "both sides expressed their readiness to make active joint efforts to stabilise and develop Russia-US cooperation on a constructive, equitable and mutually beneficial basis."

"The sides stressed the importance of rebuilding mutually beneficial trade and economic ties between the two counties’ business communities, which could give an additional impetus to progressive and sustainable development of bilateral relations," it said.

News agency Reuters reported that Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that it was too early to talk about any possible deals with the U.S. over sanctions on Russia, but that President Vladimir Putin could meet U.S. President Donald Trump before the G20 in July.

"(But) it's hardly possible to talk about any kind of deals (over sanctions)," Peskov was quoted as saying.

"To start with we must fix the date and time of a meeting between the two presidents. Aides are working on this now," he said.

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