Russia's Lavrov says 'not true' Moscow asked Maduro not to leave Venezuela: RIA

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with Secretary General of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Thomas Greminger in Moscow, Russia April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed as untrue on Thursday assertions by U.S. officials that Moscow had urged Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro not to leave the country amid the continuing unrest there, RIA news agency reported.

RIA also cited Lavrov as saying that Russia and the United States had irreconcilable positions on Venezuela but that they had agreed to continue talks.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Gareth Jones)