GENEVA, June 16 (AFP) - President Joe Biden landed on Tuesday (Jun 15) in Geneva on the eve of his first summit with Vladimir Putin, a meeting the White House hopes will set clear "red lines" preventing the combustible US-Russia relationship from further deterioration.

"I'm always ready," the US president told reporters with a smile, when asked if he was prepared for the tense encounter.

Biden and Putin will huddle for hours on Wednesday at an elegant lakeside villa in Geneva, a setting reminiscent of the Cold War summit between US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the Swiss city in 1985.

Talks at La Grange villa are expected to start at around 1pm and last as long as five hours.

Illustrating the frostiness of the session, the two leaders will not be sharing any kind of meal.

"There will be no breaking of bread," a senior US official said aboard the president's Air Force One plane, speaking on condition of anonymity.

One of the few things both sides can agree on is that relations between Moscow and Washington are at about their lowest ebb since the distant days of the US-Soviet superpower stand-off.

This time, tensions are less about strategic nuclear weapons and competing ideologies than what the Biden administration sees as an increasingly rogue, authoritarian Russian state.

From cyber attacks on US entities and meddling in the last two US presidential elections, to human rights violations and aggression against Ukraine and other European countries, the US list of allegations against the Kremlin runs long.