Obama and Putin call for end to Syria violence Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin last night called for an end to violence in Syria and moves towards "political transition to a democratic, pluralistic political system," after talks at the G20 summit in Mexico. The meeting - the first between the two leaders since Mr Putin began his latest term as Russian president - was overshadowed by mutual suspicion about the respective Russia and US interests in Syria. Mr Obama said that on Syria the two "agreed that we need to see a cessation of the violence, that a political process has to be created to prevent civil war and the kind of horrific events that we've seen over the last several weeks." He added: "We pledged to work with other international actors, including the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and all interested parties in trying to find a resolution to this problem." Mr Putin, said after their two-hour meeting: "From my perspective we've been able to find many commonalities" on Syria. The need for Mr Obama to seek Mr Putin's co-operation over Syria has been made politically toxic in the context of the US presidential election. Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger has called Russia "our number one geopolitical foe." What is happening on the ground is that while some people predicted the Syrian army would crush the rebels, that has been shown so far not to be the case and I think the regime in Syria has every reason to be worried, but it really does require Russian and Chinese buy-in to a plan. British diplomats believe that the 45-minute meeting between Mr Cameron and Mr Putin at least opened up a dialogue on the need for political transition in Syria; the two leaders agreed to continue working together on the issue. Speaking as talks began at his hotel, Mr Putin said: "I would like to note that relations between Russia and Great Britain are developing and in my opinion they are developing quite positively."