MOSCOW - U.S. President Barack Obama will pay his first visit to Russia as president on July 6-8, the Kremlin said on Monday.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Washington last week to lay the groundwork for the July summit between Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.

Lavrov said at the time the two nations had obvious differences over Georgia but progress in key areas such as arms control would not be held hostage by such disagreements.

U.S.-Russia relations deteriorated under the administration of George W. Bush, sinking to post-Cold War lows after Moscow crushed Georgia in a brief war last August and over differences on a missile defense system planned by Washington in Europe.

George W. Bush Hillary Clinton Russia Dmitry Medvedev