President Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed over the phone on Wednesday the need to increase international efforts to reduce the conflict in Syria, the Kremlin said.

"The need to increase the international community's efforts to build a peaceful political process in (Syria), to create conditions for de-escalation of the situation and to address the acute humanitarian problems was emphasised," the Kremlin said in a statement.

The two leaders also confirmed their upcoming meeting at the World Energy Congress in Istanbul between Oct. 9 and 13, and reaffirmed their desire to restore bilateral economic ties as well as implementing the Turkish Stream and the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant projects.