AKIPRESS.COM - The Kremlin said on Monday it wanted an apology from Fox News over what it said were "unacceptable" comments one of the channel's presenters made about Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview with U.S. counterpart Donald Trump.

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly described Putin as "a killer" in the interview with Trump as he tried to press the U.S. president to explain more fully why he respected his Russian counterpart. O'Reilly did not say who he thought Putin had killed, Reuters reported.

"We consider such words from the Fox TV company to be unacceptable and insulting, and honestly speaking, we would prefer to get an apology from such a respected TV company," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

O'Reilly dismissed the Kremlin's call for an apology. "I'm working on that apology but it may take a little time," he said on Fox News late on Monday. "You might want to check in with me around ... 2023."

Fox News is a top-rated U.S. cable news network owned by Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox Inc.