Ankara has warned the West it could "lose" Turkey unless it showed more support for the country and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a day after he met Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to fix their damaged ties. "I believe that we shall look for satisfactory joint decisions on this basis, based on this mutual approach", Putin said.

Mr Cavusoglu said Turkey wanted to establish a "strong mechanism" with Russian Federation to find a solution for Syria, without explaining what this might entail.

Putin welcomed Erdogan in a Tsarist-era Konstantinovsky palace just outside his home town and immediately signalled he was ready to improve relations with Turkey, which he said had gone from a historical high point to a very low level.

"We will bring our relations back to the old level and even beyond".

The growing rift with the West, as well as fears over Syria and economic concerns, spurred Mr Erdogan to seek to restore relations with Moscow that were wrecked last November when Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet over the Syrian border.

But in a shock reversal late June, Putin accepted a letter from Erdogan expressing regret over the incident as an apology. Ankara also lashed out at the EU for failing to uphold its end of an EU-Turkey agreement on migration. "At the same time I do not believe that relations between the two countries will become so close that Russian Federation can offer Turkey an alternative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation security partnership".

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Referring to Turkey's fights against extremism, Erdogan said, "We had serious fights against extremism in 2015".

The leaders are expected to discuss Syria and other subjects in a highly symbolic meeting that will likely make western governments nervous, because it's a U-turn for two governments who were insulting each other just two months ago. At the same time, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation relations with Russia have been strained over Russian military incursions in Ukraine, including its annexation of Crimea, and aggressive behavior on the alliance's eastern flank.

An employee of a flag-making factory folds a Russian flag as a Turkish flag adorns the display at left, in Istanbul, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016.

But after such a bitter dispute - which saw Putin accuse Erdogan of stabbing profiting from an illegal oil trade with the Islamic State group - it will take a lot for the pair to reheat relations.

The two strongmen conspicuously skirted one major issue that divides them - the war in Syria. "This process has already started but it will take some time", Putin told a press conference in Saint Petersburg.