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 counties.
The former intelligence contractor has admitted leaking information about US surveillance programmes to the media.
The decision to cancel the talks, announced during a trip by the president to Los Angeles, comes the morning after Mr Obama said he was "disappointed" with Russia's decision to offer Mr Snowden asylum for a year.
Mr Snowden, an American former National Security Agency (NSA) technical contractor and CIA worker, in June leaked to the Guardian and Washington Post newspapers documents and details relating to NSA programmes that gather data on telephone calls and emails.
Mr Snowden fled his home in Hawaii, where he worked at a small NSA installation, to Hong Kong, and subsequently to Russia.
He spent more than a month in a transit area of the Moscow airport as the US pressured other countries to deny him asylum. On 1 August, he left the airport after the Russian government said it would give him asylum there for a year.
Speaking to chat show host Jay Leno on Tuesday night, Mr Obama reaffirmed his commitment to attending the G20 talks in Russia.
But Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said on Wednesday Mr Obama would not attend planned one-on-one talks with Mr Putin in Moscow, nor on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
"We'll still work with Russia on issues where we can find common ground, but it was the unanimous view of the president and his national security team that a summit did not make sense in the current environment," Mr Rhodes said, according to the Associated Press.
A White House aide said Mr Snowden's asylum had deepened the pre-existing tension between the two counties.
The former intelligence contractor has admitted leaking information about US surveillance programmes to the media.
The decision to cancel the talks, announced during a trip by the president to Los Angeles, comes the morning after Mr Obama said he was "disappointed" with Russia's decision to offer Mr Snowden asylum for a year.
Mr Snowden, an American former National Security Agency (NSA) technical contractor and CIA worker, in June leaked to the Guardian and Washington Post newspapers documents and details relating to NSA programmes that gather data on telephone calls and emails.
Mr Snowden fled his home in Hawaii, where he worked at a small NSA installation, to Hong Kong, and subsequently to Russia.
He spent more than a month in a transit area of the Moscow airport as the US pressured other countries to deny him asylum. On 1 August, he left the airport after the Russian government said it would give him asylum there for a year.
Speaking to chat show host Jay Leno on Tuesday night, Mr Obama reaffirmed his commitment to attending the G20 talks in Russia.
But Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said on Wednesday Mr Obama would not attend planned one-on-one talks with Mr Putin in Moscow, nor on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
"We'll still work with Russia on issues where we can find common ground, but it was the unanimous view of the president and his national security team that a summit did not make sense in the current environment," Mr Rhodes said, according to the Associated Press.
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