MOSCOW (AFP, Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet US Secretary of State John Kerry in Beijing on Saturday ahead of next week's Apec summit, Russian news agencies reported on Friday.

"The meeting between Lavrov and Kerry is planned for Nov 8 on the sidelines of the preparations for the Apec summit in Beijing," the agencies quoted a source at the Foreign Ministry as saying, without giving details.

Recent meetings between Kerry and Lavrov have been dominated by the crisis in Ukraine. The rift over Ukraine has caused the worst standoff between Moscow and the West since the Cold War ended, and Lavrov and Kerry failed to make progress on resolving their differences at talks in Paris on Oct 14.

A ceasefire agreement between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in now in tatters, with the truce repeatedly violated and the death toll in the east now more than 4,000 since mid-April.

The Russian and US presidents, Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama, are attending next week's Apec summit in Beijing and then a summit of the Group of 20 major economies in Brisbane.

Washington says not formal face-to-face talks are scheduled between the presidents but they could have an informal conversation on the sidelines.