Updated at 4:03 p.m. ET

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters Friday that President Trump raised the issue of Russian election interference in a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump opened the more than two-hour meeting "by raising the concerns of the American people" about Russia's meddling in last year's presidential race, according to Tillerson. Trump and Putin had a "robust and lengthy exchange on the subject," the secretary of state said.

As he has done in the past, Putin denied involvement in any meddling in the election.

Trump and Putin agreed, however, that the issue of election interference was a substantial hindrance in their ability to move the U.S.-Russia relationship forward. The two world leaders also agreed to work on further commitments of noninterference in the affairs of the United States and in the democratic process in the U.S. as well as in other countries.

There is "more work to be done in that regard," Tillerson said.

The top U.S. diplomat spoke Friday at a press briefing after Trump held his first official meeting with Putin. Trump and Putin exchanged a warm handshake in a brief interlude with reporters and photographers before their meeting began.

"President Putin and I have been discussing various things, and I think it's going very well. We've had some very, very good talks," Trump told reporters before the meeting. "We're going to have a talk now and obviously that will continue, but we look forward to a lot of very positive things happening — for Russia, for the United States, and for everybody concerned. And it's an honor to be with you."

The two men were scheduled for a 30-minute meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, but ended up talking almost five times that long.

Beforehand, Putin mentioned that they have talked already a few times over the phone.

"But phone conversation is never enough," he said through a translator. "If we want to have positive results in bilaterals and be able to resolve most acute international topics and issues, definitely we need personal meetings.

"And I'm delighted to be able to meet you personally, Mr. President, and I hope, as you have said, our meeting will yield positive results for Russia and the U.S."

The two presidents were joined in the meeting by their translators and by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Tillerson.

Speaking from Hamburg on Russian state TV, Lavrov said Trump "heard President Putin's clear statements that it's not true the Russian leadership intervened in the election, and that he accepts those statements."

Tillerson told reporters that his interpretation of the exchange was that the two men agreed on the need to move past the issue of election interference. The secretary of state said the focus is now on how the U.S. secures a commitment that Russia has no intention of interfering in U.S. elections in the future — and how the Trump administration creates a framework to judge whether Russia is keeping that commitment.

Last month, Putin told international journalists in St. Petersburg that it's possible that "patriotic" Russian hackers outside of his government might be trying to engage in cyberattacks against the world's democracies. "I must stress, on a state level, we are never engaged into these kind of activity," said Putin at the time, according to a media report.