GENEVA, March 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met here on Friday evening in Geneva.

    This is the first time for Clinton to hold talks with her Russian counterpart after she took the helm of the U.S. State Department.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a press conference at EU headquarters in Brussels, capital of Belgium, March 6, 2009.

During the dinner meeting, the two ministers are to discuss a wide range of issues like Afghanistan, U.S. missile shield in Europe and Iran's nuclear program.

    Earlier on Thursday, Clinton said in Brussels that she would talk with Lavrov about "a wide range of critical matters where we can cooperate and those where we have differences."

File photo taken shows that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov holds a news conference in Moscow January 16, 2009

 "I think in some areas we're going to find there's a great potential for cooperation. In others, we're going to have differences and we will stand our ground and they will stand theirs and we'll hope to find some accommodation if possible." She said.

    Since Barack Obama took the U.S. presidency, the White House has signaled the willingness to improve the relations with Russia.

    On Thursday, NATO announced that it resumed contacts with Russia.