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Russia is considering whether to follow the US and its allies in conducting air strikes against Islamic State (IS) targets, President Vladimir Putin says, according to BBC.

Mr Putin spoke after meeting Barack Obama on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA). But the meeting, and the leaders' speeches at the UNGA, also highlighted splits about how to end the Syrian war.

Russia said it would be an "enormous mistake" not to work with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to tackle IS.

On Monday, the US and France again insisted that President Assad must go. But in response, Mr Putin said: "They aren't citizens of Syria and so should not be involved in choosing the leadership of another country."

Russia would conduct air strikes only if they were approved by the United Nations, he said, while also ruling out Russian troops taking part in a ground operation in Syria.

The two leaders met for 90 minutes on the sidelines of the UNGA in talks that Mr Putin called "very constructive, business-like and frank".

It was their first face-to-face meeting in almost a year, with the Ukraine war also on the agenda.

A senior US government official said neither president was "seeking to score points" in the talks. Both sides agreed to open lines of communication to avoid accidental military conflict in the region, the official added.