NATO head Jens Stoltenberg confirmed Thursday the alliance is discussing whether to hold its first formal talks with Russia since 2014 when the Ukraine crisis plunged relations into a deep freeze.

Stoltenberg said NATO and Russia needed transparency to avoid misunderstandings and incidents such as the November shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by key alliance member Turkey after it violated its airspace along the Syrian border.

Russia said on Thursday it wanted to hold an international meeting on Syria -- including key players from the West and the Middle East -- in Munich next month.

"There is an agreement in principle between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State John Kerry, and now we will propose to all the other participants of the international Syria support group a time and place -- Munich, February 11," state news agency TASS quoted deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov as saying.

Russia's federal tourism agency on Wednesday issued a warning that Islamic State jihadists were planning to abduct Russian citizens in Turkey.

"According to the competent agencies, leaders of the IS terrorist group plan to take hostages from among Russian citizens in Turkey," it said in a statement.

The Kremlin on Tuesday dismissed comments by a U.S. Treasury official to the BBC alleging massive corruption by President Vladimir Putin, challenging Washington to provide proof for what amounted to an "official accusation".

In the BBC Panorama program that aired Monday evening, Adam Szubin, acting under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the U.S. Treasury said Putin was a "picture of corruption".

Russia's defense ministry on Monday denied reports that it is building a new military base in Syria, where it has pursued a bombing campaign for the past four months.

"There are no new airbases or additional aerodromes for Russian warplanes in the Syrian Arab Republic, and no plans to create any," defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told Russian news agencies.

France is working to strengthen its relations with Russia in spite of Western sanctions imposed against Moscow over the Ukraine crisis, French economy minister Emmanuel Macron said in Moscow Monday.

"Our ministerial visits are not focused on diplomacy but show the strong desire to preserve and even strengthen our diplomatic relations while respecting the sanctions in the current political and diplomatic framework," Macron told reporters after a meeting with Russian counterpart Alexei Ulyukayev.

Russia on Sunday confirmed it had shut for "security reasons" an Arctic border post with Norway to migrants being controversially returned from the Nordic country.

Norway on Saturday said it was temporarily halting its return of migrants -- mainly from Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq -- who had entered from Russia following a request from the authorities there.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday expressed alarm over reports of a build-up of Russian troops in northern Syria near the Turkish border, saying such movements would not be tolerated.

"We have said this from the beginning: we won't tolerate such formations (in northern Syria) along the area stretching from the Iraqi border up to the Mediterranean," Erdogan told reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul.

The U.S. and French defense ministers on Wednesday condemned Moscow's role in the Syria conflict, saying Russian jets should stop targeting the opposition forces fighting the Islamic State group.

"The Russians are on the wrong track strategically and also in some cases tactically," said U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter after a meeting in Paris of seven defense ministers in the coalition fighting IS.

NATO is discussing whether to invite Russia to their first formal talks since 2014, aiming to put ties damaged by the Ukraine crisis back on an even keel, diplomatic sources said Wednesday.

Despite their differences both sides recognized the need for "transparency", the sources said, against a backdrop of a series of crises including Ukraine and the war in Syria.