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US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have met for the first time, shaking hands at G20 talks set amid a backdrop of violent anti-globalisation protests in Hamburg that saw at least 160 police officers injured.
After months of anticipation and intrigue, the presidents sat down for their first meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the German city, making brief remarks before a private meeting.
"We look forward to a lot of positive things happening, for Russia, for the United States and for everybody concerned," Mr Trump said, sitting next to Mr Putin.
"It's an honour to be with you."
Mr Putin told reporters phone conversations with the US President were "never enough".
Mr Trump has said he wants to find ways to work with Mr Putin, a goal made more difficult by sharp differences over Russia's actions in Syria and Ukraine, and accusations that Moscow meddled in the 2016 presidential election.
The US leader is under pressure to raise those concerns with Mr Putin in their first meeting, but a day earlier Mr Trump resisted blaming Russia outright for hacks leading up to polling day.
Mr Trump also held his first face-to-face meeting since becoming president with his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto, hailing him as his "friend" but insisting Mexico would "absolutely" pay for his proposed border wall.
German host Chancellor Angela Merkel said the priorities of the leaders' summit would be global trade and growth, climate change, energy, women's rights and development in Africa.
"We all know the great global challenges, and we know these are urgent matters, and therefore solutions can only be found if we look for compromises and work together," she said in opening the first meeting.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who is in Hamburg with Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, said he would talk about counter-terrorism measures, trade and energy security.
North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile test was expected to feature heavily in discussions at the G20, and Mr Turnbull has called on China to lead efforts on curbing the rogue nation's nuclear ambitions.
Hamburg requests police back-up for protesters
Outside the summit venue 160 police officers were injured in clashes with protesters, who were torching cars, barricades and rubbish bins in protests against capitalism and globalisation.
US first lady Melania Trump was kept from joining the other spouses of leaders at the summit for their own program of events, which included a tour of the city's historic harbour.
The first lady's spokesperson said Hamburg police had not cleared her to leave the government guest house where she and Mr Trump spent the night because of the protesters.
Police forces around Germany dispatched reinforcements to help 15,000 police already deployed to the northern port city for the G20 summit as the violence escalated.
At least 15 people were arrested and dozens more held for questioning.
Police said violence that erupted during G20 marches on Thursday continued into Friday, with far-left protesters slashing the tires of a car belonging to Canada's G20 delegation and smashing windows of the consulate of Mongolia.
Dozens of officers built moving lines in different parts of Hamburg and used water cannons to force away protesters from streets across the city.
Some were physically moved for hundreds of metres from a protest sit-in in front of the first security checkpoint near the summit grounds.
None of the activists managed to push into the no-go zone around the summit that the police had established.
Activists took to the streets to protest globalisation, economic inequality and what they see as a lack of action on climate change.
Reuters/AP
Topics: world-politics, government-and-politics, foreign-affairs, turnbull-malcolm, donald-trump, germany, united-states, russian-federation
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