US to hold talks with Russia over air strikes in Syria

The US and Russian military will hold talks "as soon as possible" to avoid clashing in Syria, the countries' top diplomats say.

Russian defence officials say their aircraft carried out about 20 missions against the so-called Islamic State group on Wednesday.

But the US expressed fears the targets were non-IS opponents of Russia's ally, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

The US is targeting IS with air strikes in both Syria and Iraq.

Nato said there had been little co-ordination by Russia with US-led forces against IS. The US says it was informed of Wednesday's air strikes only an hour before they took place.

The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal report that US-backed rebels were targeted by Russia.

Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, said there was a need to "establish channels of communication to avoid any unintended incidents". His US counterpart, John Kerry, said talks will be held "as soon as possible," possibly as early as Thursday.

Kerry added: "It's one thing to be targeting Isil, but the concern, obviously, is that this is not what was happening."