Washington DC - The US will invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to a G20 summit in Miami, a US official said Thursday, but President Donald Trump said he doubted his counterpart would come.

The invitation would mark a major easing of international pressure on Putin, who has been shunned by most of the West but not Trump since ordering the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The US is this year's host of the Group of 20 major economies, and Trump has promised a grandiose summit in December in his adopted home state of Florida.

"All G20 members will be invited to attend ministerial meetings and the leaders' summit," a senior Trump administration official said in a statement.

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Trump, questioned later by a reporter, seemed unaware of any invitation.

"I don't know that he's coming. I doubt he'd come, to be honest with you," Trump said.

But Trump said he supported including Putin, explaining, "If he came, it would be probably very helpful."

He renewed criticism of former president Barack Obama for booting Russia out of the then G8 – meant as a club for wealthy democracies – in response to an earlier, more limited invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

"President Putin, he was very offended by that – rightfully," Trump said.

Trump welcomed Putin in August to Alaska, the first time the Russian leader stepped on Western soil since the invasion.