US National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers has rebuffed the prospect of a US-Russia cyber unit, a proposal which has been greeted with incredulity by several senior US lawmakers and which President Donald Trump himself appeared to back down from after initially indicating interest.
US intelligence agencies have assessed that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election by hacking Democrats' emails and distributing online propaganda to help Trump win the election over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Moscow has denied any interference, and Trump has said that his campaign did not collude with Russia.
A Russian presidential envoy said this week that Moscow and Washington were in talks to create a joint cyber security working group.
Asked whether it was a good idea to set up a cyber security cell with the Russians, Rogers told the annual Aspen Security Forum: "I'm not a policy guy here. .... I would argue now is probably not the best time to be doing this."
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Trump said earlier this month that he had discussed the idea of creating such a group with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg.
