The leaders of Russia and France avoided each other’s gaze as they made short, stiff statements in the Kremlin on Thursday before talks on countering Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria.

Francois Hollande wants to unite major powers in a single “grand coalition” to fight the militants behind the Paris attacks but Vladimir Putin’s Air Force has mostly hit Western-backed rebels combating Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

By the end of the evening, Mr Hollande appeared more relaxed and French officials were touting a potentially significant advance in cooperation with Moscow.

“It’s major because of the agreement not to strike groups that are fighting Islamic State,” a French official said. “What matters is coordination — the fact that we have a common objective to fight ISIS. It’s the result that matters, destroying Daesh (the Arabic acronym for the ISIS).”

After a week of talks with the leaders of the United States, Russia, Britain and Germany, Mr Hollande has secured increased political and military support for his air campaign against the ISIS, which claimed responsibility for attacks by gunmen and suicide bombers that killed 130 in France’s worst atrocity for decades.

But his goal of turning the two rival international military alliances waging a proxy war in Syria into a single broad coalition focused on defeating the ISIS seems a long way off.

That is chiefly because the US-led coalition, including Sunni Arab states Saudi Arabia and Qatar as well as Turkey, aims to assist rebels in overthrowing Mr Assad, while the Russian-led team, including Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, is allied with his armed forces.

It is also because US President Barack Obama is determined to avoid being sucked back into a war in the Middle East, or working militarily with Russia after its annexation of Crimea and support for Russian-speaking separatists in eastern Ukraine.

A Western diplomat said the Russians gave Mr Hollande their standard line that “we are not wedded to Assad”, but in practise they show no signs of relinquishing him or grooming a successor.

In military terms, Mr Hollande has secured greater intelligence sharing by Washington which is already helping France hit more ISIS targets, as well as promises of refuelling and reconnaissance support from Germany and the prospect of Britain joining in air strikes, provided parliament approves.

Cyprus and Britain offered to open their east Mediterranean air bases to the French to facilitate airstrikes in Syria, while Berlin and other European partners have agreed to send more peacekeepers to Mali.