Russian, Turkish ministers meet for first time since downing of Russian jet

BELGRADE (Reuters) - The foreign ministers of Russia and Turkey met on Thursday, the first high-level, bilateral face-to-face contact since the Turkish airforce shot down a Russian jet nine days ago, but there was no immediate word on the outcome of their talks. Moscow and Ankara are deeply at odds over what happened when Turkey downed the Russian SU-24 fighter bomber near the Syrian border as it took part in the Kremlin's air campaign against militants in Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin branded the incident a war crime on Thursday and said Turkey would face further sanctions. Moscow has already banned some Turkish food imports as part of a wider retaliatory sanctions package. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, on the sidelines of a conference of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the Serbian capital Belgrade. There was no word from either side on the outcome of the meeting. Cavusoglu later addressed the OSCE conference, saying: "The incident on the 24th of November ... should not be confused with our fighting against our common enemy of Daesh, terrorism and should not be abused for political objectives." Daesh is an Arabic term for the Islamic State jihadist group, which has seized swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq. Turkey says the Russian jet violated its airspace and that it was repeatedly warned, something Russia has denied. (Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic and Ivana Sekularac; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Gareth Jones)