WASHINGTON, D.C.: US President Donald Trump, under fire over his Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin, doubled down Thursday by saying he looks forward to meeting the Russian leader again -- with talks already underway for a visit to Washington in the fall.

Trump has come in for bipartisan criticism for what many saw as his unsettling embrace of the Russian strongman this week -- and his seeming disavowal of his own intelligence agencies and their assessment that Moscow meddled in the 2016 election.