Seeking common ground, President Barack Obama said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed Monday on the need for a political process in Syria to prevent civil war in the violence-torn country and said any tensions between the United States and Russia can be worked out.

The two men were meeting for the first time since Putin returned to the presidency amid friction over Syria and a recognition that both need one another, an uncomfortable truth for Obama as he wages a tough re-election campaign and for the newly elected Russian leader who is deeply suspicious of the United States

Obama said that on Syria the two "agreed that we need to see a cessation of the violence, that a political process has to be created to prevent civil war and the kind of horrific events that we've seen over the last several weeks, and we pledged to work with other international actors, including the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and all interested parties in trying to find a resolution to this problem."