DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said he trusted President Vladimir Putin when he denied accusations Russia meddled in last year' s U.S. election despite U.S. intelligence agencies' conclusion of Russian interference.
Trump made the comment after he and Putin met in Syria, now in its seventh year of civil war.
It was their first encounter since July and came during a low in U.S.-Russia relations and at a time Trump is haunted by an investigation into accusations that Putin influenced the election that brought him to the White House.
Putin reiterated the denials of interference, Trump said.
"Every time he sees me he says 'I did not do that,' and I really believe that, when he tells me that, he means it," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after leaving the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the resort of Danang.
"I think he is very insulted by it, which is not a good thing for our country," Trump said.
Trump, who has called allegations of campaign collusion with Moscow a hoax, has faced questions from Democrats about the matter since he took office. A special counsel, Robert Mueller, is conducting led to charges against Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates.
U.S. intelligence agencies have also concluded Russians interfered to tip the election in Trump's vote Democracy Hillary Clinton and spreading social media propaganda.
Russia has repeatedly denied meddling.
The top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee, which is investigating the issue, harshly criticized Trump's comments and accused him of siding with Putin over U.S. intelligence agencies.
"The President fools no one. He understands that the Russians intervened through the hacking and dumping of his opponent's emails, the fruits of which he exploited time and again on the campaign trail, "Adam Schiff said in a statement.
In Danang, Putin told reporters an alleged link between Manafort and Russia was fabricated by Trump's opponents.
Putin dismissed suggestions Russia influenced the elections through political advertising. Tech companies, including Facebook, have said some Russian-bought political content spread on their platforms around the time.
"There is no confirmation of our mass media meddling in election campaigns - and there can not be any," Putin said.
LIMITED CONTACT
After emphasizing on the 2016 campaign trail that it would be nice if the United States and Russia could work together, Trump has had limited contact with Putin since taking office.
Washington to have good ties with Moscow as well as Syria's civil war, the conflict in Ukraine and the North Korean nuclear crisis.
"Look, I can not stand there and argue with him, I would rather have him get out of Syria," Trump said. "In Vietnam, Trump and Putin agreed a joint statement that said there was no military solution to the Syrian conflict, pledged to continue "de-confliction" to ensure the US and Russian militaries do not clash there, and pledged new support for the U.N.-backed "Geneva process" that has failed to find a political solution to end the conflict despite years of effort.
Russia has militarily supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad while Syrian rebels against him, though the recent focus has been on defeating the Islamic State militant group that had seized parts of Syria.
With Islamic State having suffered losses in Syria, Iraq and beyond, greater attention is turning to the broader conflict between Assad's forces and rebel factions.
Speaking to reporters on a conference call, U.S. State Department official praised the statement for re-committing Russia to the Geneva process though it was unclear why Assad would take part, from the U.S. point of view, the Syrian leader is not expected to keep power at the end of the day.
Trump also hailed the joint statement.
"We did it very quickly," Trump told reporters. "
Talking after their meeting, Putin described Trump as" a well-mannered person and comfortable to deal with ".
"We know each other little, but the U.S. president is highly civil in his behavior, friendly. We have a normal dialogue but unfortunately little time, "he said.
Trump said they had two or three very short conversations.
They were seen chatting amicably as they walked to the position where the traditional APEC summit photo was being taken at a viewpoint looking over the South China Sea.
Pictures from the APEC meeting also showed Trump approaching Putin at the summit table and patting him on the back. They also shook hands at the summit dinner on Friday.
Additional reporting by Steve Holland in DANANG, Maria Kiselyova in MOSCOW and Mark Hosenball in WASHINGTON; Writing by Matthew Tostevin and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and James Dalgleish
