Tough Talks, No Agreements at Merkel, Putin Meeting near Berlin

MESEBERG, Germany (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, as well as Iran and a gas pipeline project that has drawn U.S. ire during tough talks outside Berlin that ended with no clearcut progress.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters no agreements were reached, but the meeting had simply been intended to "check the watches" after Merkel's meeting with Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in May.

Ties between the two countries have been strained since Russia's annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014.

The two leaders both viewed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project as a purely commercial venture, despite persistent fire by the U.S. and Ukrainian governments, Peskov said.

"That's why it is necessary to take measures against possible non-competitive and illegal attacks from the third countries in order to complete this project eventually," he told reporters shortly before Putin flew back to Russia. It was not immediately clear what such "measures" could entail.

At the start of the talks, Merkel underscored her expectation that Ukraine should continue to have a role in gas transit to Europe, and welcomed the start of discussions among the European Union, Ukraine and Russia on that issue.

Putin, speaking at the German government's Meseburg castle, said such a move had to make sense from a business perspective.

"The main thing is that the Ukrainian transit - which is traditional for us - meets economic demands," he said. "Nord Stream 2 is exclusively an economic project."

The United States is pressing Berlin to halt the pipeline that will carry gas from Russia under the Baltic Sea, arguing it will increase Germany's...