Washington: US President Donald Trump will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the White House on Wednesday to discuss Syria and a wide range of international issues, a senior US official said.

It will be the highest-level contact between Trump and the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin since Trump took office on January 20.

And it comes one day after Trump dismissed FBI Director James Comey, whose law enforcement agency is probing ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on the agenda would be Syria as well as US-Russian relations and other global issues.

Relations deteriorated between the United States and Russia after US air strikes against a Syrian airfield in response to a chemical weapons attack that Washington blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a Russian ally.

Reuters with Fairfax Media