Obama not to meet Putin over Snowden

US President Barack Obama has cancelled a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin after Russia's decision to grant asylum to intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, the White House said.

But Mr Obama will still attend the G20 economic talks in St Petersburg.

A White House aide said Mr Snowden's asylum had deepened the pre-existing tension between the two countries.

The Kremlin said it was disappointed by the move and that the invitation to bilateral talks remained in force.

Mr Snowden, a former intelligence contractor, has admitted leaking information about US surveillance programmes to the media.

"We have reached the conclusion that there is not enough recent progress in our bilateral agenda with Russia to hold a US-Russia Summit," the White House said in a statement.

"We believe it would be more constructive to postpone the summit until we have more results from our shared agenda," the White House said.