Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday as Israel frets over a Russian military buildup in Syria.

Netanyahu was accompanied by his army and intelligence chiefs in a rare step for an overseas visit that Israel said would focus on Russia's maneuvering in the war-torn nation. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Russia next week for talks with President Vladimir Putin on Moscow's military support for the Damascus regime and "threats" facing Israel, his office said Wednesday.

Netanyahu will speak about "the deployment of Russian military forces in Syria," a statement said.

Washington warned Russia on Tuesday that Syrian leader Bashar Assad has no role in coalition operations against the Islamic State group and must step down to allow a political settlement.

Secretary of State John Kerry called his Kremlin counterpart Sergei Lavrov to restate the U.S. position after Russia's President Vladimir Putin promised to maintain military support for Assad.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italy's billionaire former leader Silvio Berlusconi on Friday met for informal talks in Crimea which Moscow annexed from Ukraine last year, an official said.

Putin and Italy's disgraced former prime minister, who the Russian strongman counts among his close friends, visited an Italian war cemetery near the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, a spokeswoman for Crimea's regional leader told AFP.

Ukraine's army said on Wednesday that a new nine-day truce with pro-Russian insurgents was holdings despite small skirmishes that claimed the lives of two government soldiers this week.

"A relative calm on the front is holding," Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told reporters.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry raised U.S. concerns about reports of "an imminent enhanced Russian military buildup" in Syria, in a phone call Saturday to his counterpart in Moscow, the U.S. State Department said.

"The secretary made clear that if such reports were accurate, these actions could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation with the anti-ISIL coalition operating in Syria," the State Department said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Syrian President Bashar Assad was willing to hold early parliamentary elections and share power with the "healthy" opposition.

Putin said the Russian-backed Syrian leader agreed with him that "political changes are necessary" in Syria.

Chinese President Xi Jinping lauded his country as a major power and a force for world peace Thursday as he presided over a spectacular military parade marking the 70th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II.

With concerns rife over China's rise, Xi announced that the People's Liberation Army -- the world's largest military -- would be reduced by 300,000 personnel, although the defense ministry said the cuts would mainly fall on outdated units and non-combat staff.

The leaders of France, Germany and Russia discussed the Ukraine crisis over the phone on Saturday and agreed to hold a new summit in the coming weeks, said the French presidency.

Francois Hollande, Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin once again reaffirmed their support for the "Minsk II" peace measures agreed in February. 

Syrian President Bashar Assad described on Tuesday as "legitimate" the presence of fighters from Hizbullah in Syria to back his forces against anti-regime gunmen.

"The difference (between Hizbullah and foreign anti-regime fighters) is legitimacy. Who invited Hizbullah to Syria?" Assad asked.