National security adviser says Trump won't have in-person summit with Putin before election

"We've rejected that," O'Brien said when asked of such a meeting during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press."

NBC reported earlier Sunday that the President told aides he wants an in-person meeting with Putin ahead of November, with it potentially being in the United States.

Pressed later on whether the President has asked for a meeting with his Russian counterpart in the US, O'Brien answered, "No, we're not doing a meeting with Putin in the United States."

"We'd love to have Putin come here, hopefully, to sign a terrific arms control deal that protects Americans and protects Russians," he added.

O'Brien said that instead of a pre-election meeting with Trump, the Russians are proposing a summit with the UN Security Council's five permanent members, known as the P5, to try to "bully" the US back into the Iran nuclear deal. Trump said Saturday he did not want to participate in a virtual summit on Iran.

O'Brien said that the US is interested in having better relations and brokering an arms control deal with Russia.

"When the Soviet Union was there and the evil empire was there, Ronald Reagan negotiated to try and reduce the nuclear weapons that are pointed at each country. We'd like to see that happen. We'd like to have good relations with Russia, but that's up to the Russians," O'Brien said.

CNN reported in June that US and Russian officials were set to meet later that month for nuclear arms negotiations.

The Trump administration has abandoned a number of key arms control pacts, most recently the Open Skies Treaty, in favor of seeking a three-party agreement with Russia and China. The insistence on a trilateral agreement is widely seen as a way to scuttle New START, the nuclear reduction treaty between the US and Russia that is set to expire in February 2021. Beijing has dismissed calls to participate in trilateral talks.