IF LOOKS COULD KILL

Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin in tense G20 standoff as the famously hostile pair fail to reach a breakthrough on Syria

Grinning Putin shakes hands with stony-faced Obama after US President was snubbed by Chinese hosts

PRESIDENT Obama shared a tense exchange with Russian premier Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in China this morning as the two failed to agree over a ceasefire in Syria.

They were pictured shaking hands in an icy encounter at the gathering of leaders from the world's twenty biggest economies in Hangzou.

It comes after weeks of talks between US and Russian diplomats have failed to turn up an agreement on bringing peace to the war-torn country.

Russia is firmly backing barrel-bombing dictator Bashar Al-Assad, providing military assistance and war planes.

America is on the side of what it calls "moderate" anti-Assad rebels and Kurdish forces leading the ground fight against ISIS.