Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (right) and US Secretary of State John Kerry shake hands before the start of their meeting in Moscow on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

US Secretary of State John Kerry brought his campaign to end the Syrian civil war to Moscow on Tuesday, where a meeting with President Vladimir Putin could decide the fate of peace talks.

Putin welcomed Kerry to the Kremlin on Tuesday and began talks on efforts to halt the Syrian civil war.

"Together, we're looking for ways out of the most urgent crises," Putin told Kerry, adding that he was looking forward to discussing a "whole range of issues" with him.

An agenda that included Syria and the Ukraine crisis was laid out for his meeting with Putin.

"I think the world benefits when powerful nations with a long history with each other have the ability to be able to find the common ground," Kerry said as he sat down with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. "And today I hope we will be able to find some common ground," said Kerry.

Kerry and Lavrov have a reputation as friends despite the ups and downs of the US-Russian relationship, but the pair was grave and business-like as their teams sat down in a Moscow mansion.

Washington is relying on the Kremlin to drag Russian ally Bashar al-Assad to the table for talks with his rebel opponents on ending Syria's vicious four-and-a-half-year civil war.

US ally Saudi Arabia is putting together the coalition that would negotiate on behalf of the rebels, with a view to first agreeing to a cease-fire and then launching a political dialogue. And looming over the effort to end the bloody conflict is the threat posed by the Islamic State group to spread the carnage beyond Syria's borders.

Kerry said Russia and the US agree on the need to fight the IS jihadists, despite differences on the peace process and Assad's eventual fate.

The hope is that if the regime and the rebels can agree on a truce then they, Russia and a US-led coalition of Western and Arab allies, can focus their fire on IS. Washington and Moscow are the key powers in the process, leading talks through the 17-nation International Syria Support Group.